The Final Frontier
by TheStarsInHerEyes
Summary: It's their last year at Sky High. But before they join the ranks of heroes, they still have an escaped Battle, choosing future partners, high school dating, and super statistics to deal with. Graduation never seemed so far away. Will/Layla, Warren/FG, Magenta/Zach.
1. Chapter 1

**Well, this took forever. Sorry bout that.**

**This goes with some other pieces I've written, but can also stand on its own. Only info you'd really need to know: Will and everyone are in their senior year at Sky High. Warren's graduated. Battle broke himself and all the other villains out of prison. **

**And if you're reading this, thank you - it makes me ridiculously happy that anyone would be even slightly interested in reading something I've written.**

Naturally Will was practically the last one there. His mother had insisted on flying him to school, which had meant no speeding, which meant that he was now late. Again.

On the first day too, he thought, skidding to a stop on the grass, managing to stay upright. He glanced around, running a hand through his hair. It was just handfuls of upperclassmen milling around now – great, he'd missed the first look at the freshmen. They were probably already in scheduling by now.

He walked towards the doors – out of the corner of his eye he could see Magenta and Zach, but they were rather occupied at the moment, so he gave them a wide berth.

Will raced up the stairs – maybe not as fast as Speed, but still, pretty impressive if he did say so himself – and yanked open the doors.

Except they didn't budge. Will stared down at the handle and pulled again. Still nothing. He looked around, was this one of those weird dreams where he didn't have his super strength again?

"Will!" a voice called out, and his head snapped around. Layla. There she was, waving at him from across the steps. "Over here!"

He walked over to her. Of course they had seen each other over the summer. They were neighbors. No, more importantly, they were friends. They were still friends. But, if he were to be truthful, it had mainly been a summer of avoidance.

It almost made one want to go back to school.

But now they were going to start seeing each other, talking to each other, eating with one another, on a regular basis again – starting with the very first minute. That, he had not been expecting.

"New security measures," Layla explained as he neared her

"What? Layla?" Will stammered. "What, what are you doing here?" he grinned. "I thought you would be giving tours to the freshmen."

Layla smiled back at him. "They're done with the basic tour now. They're all in scheduling."

He had known that. He had known that! Why did everything he said come out so stupid around her now?

"Oh." He concluded lamely.

"Besides," she continued cheerfully. "Someone has to explain the new code to everyone."

"New code?" Will repeated. "Yeah, what's with all this? Why do we need new security? It's a high school! And what the hell happened to those doors if _I_ can't even open them?"

"You heard about the prison break Will," Layla explained. "Everyone's taking more precautionary measures now. Centers of super activity have always been targets – Sky High's been attacked before – and now there's evidence that super villains are banding together." She shrugged. "You can never be too careful."

Will shrugged too. "Sure. Although really, making it more difficult to get into school?" He attempted a joke. "I think they're over-estimating the seniors' motivation."

Layla grinned too. "It's really not that hard," she said. "For now, I just enter you in and give you your temporary code, and then after scheduling, they'll scan you into the system, so from then on you just have to have the doors scan your face before they'll open."

"Cool." Will said as the doors smoothly slid open. He started to step through. "So, uh, I'll see you around."

"Yeah." Layla said, waving as the doors glided shut. "See ya."

* * *

"I feel really old now." Ethan commented as they made their way down the halls, avoiding other dashing students, heading for their lockers.

"Dude," Will joked. "I think you have to wait until you're at least eighteen to get a mid-life crisis. You've got a few months left."

"I see what you mean," Magenta said, ignoring Will's comment. "Warren's graduated already. And we're going to next year. It's all coming so . . . soon."

"Yeah, we're seniors now!" Zach whooped. "We rule the school! We get to push all the freshmen around!"

"Zach!" Layla said reprovingly. "We're here to guide them, help them – not give them swirlies."

"Layla, I would never have done that!" Zach protested. "I'm just saying – hey, Will, who are you gonna partner up with in Save the Citizen now that Warren's gone, huh? Have you decided yet?"

"Uh, not sure." Will said cautiously, wondering if Zach was expecting himself to be named.

"I, for one," Magenta proclaimed, spreading out a hand to examine her nails. "Plan to not put in any effort in anything – classes, Save the Citizen, nothing. It's senior year – nothing even matters anymore!"

Will grinned, high-fiving Magenta, but his stomach sunk slightly. Maybe he could live in denial and goof off this year, but then that was it. Next year, things would matter, for real. Next year, if he wasn't good enough, there would be consequences.

"Senior year is still really important!" Layla protested weakly over their cackles. "Even if you're going to be supers, you still want to go to college, right?"

"Speaking of college," Ethan said, breaking off with Layla. "You want to go on some tours together soon?"

"That'd be great!"

Zach shook his head. "Losers. We're gonna be supers. What does college matter?"

"It matters, because it's going to rock." Magenta said with a glint in her eye. "Since it'll be our cover, it means all of the partying with none of the work."

"Seriously!"

"Yeah, seriously," Magenta said with a rare, happy laugh. "It was your sister who told me!"

"Oh," Zach's brow furrowed. "Well, she doesn't tell me anything!"

Will laughed along. "Still, sooner or later we're going to have to start acting responsibly."

"Oh yeah? Challenge accepted." Zach joked.

Magenta smiled. "Yeah. But not this year."

* * *

"Ugh." Layla huffed, staring at the slip of orange paper.

"What is it?" Zach asked, craning his head to get a better look.

"What's wrong?" Magenta calmly inquired.

"Is that one of those graduation slips?" Ethan asked.

"Yes." Layla sighed, putting it away.

Ethan's eyebrows raised sharply. "What? Layla! Why? What do you need to do?"

"I haven't taken one of the required courses." She explained, shrugging.

"Oh, that's not too bad." Magenta said, shoveling in a forkful of lasagna. "Which one?"

Layla's mouth dropped in disgust. "Basic Combat."

"What?" Zach asked. "Didn't you take that in tenth grade, with all of us?"

"No!" Layla said, shocked at the very suggestion.

"You'll be with all the underclassmen," Ethan said, shrugging. "But Magenta's right, it won't be that bad."

"Oh, no." Layla said, smiling, shaking her head. "No. I'm not going to take it."

They all stared at her.

"But Layla," Ethan said. "It's required. You have to, to graduate."

"I'm not going to." Layla repeated. "It goes against my beliefs."

"Come on Layla." Magenta said, rolling her eyes. "How do you expect to be a hero – sorry, okay, a super – if you don't know how to fight?"

"I want to be a super," Layla said primly. "Not a warrior."

"But," Zach said, his forehead furrowed. "You can't be a super, and not fight."

Layla's sandwich fell out of her hands back onto the tray. "Of course you can!"

"Maybe," Ethan conceded, "But you have to admit, it's not very practical."

Zach was grinning, as if expecting Layla to say 'just kidding' any moment. "Name one super that doesn't fight."

"That question is misleading!" She insisted. "Because of the way our society is, putting value on feats of strength and shows instead of actual problem solving, the supers who hit stuff are the ones who get the comic books and cartoons. Just because they aren't as publicized doesn't mean they aren't more effective!"

"Even if you don't want to fight, don't you think it's a good idea to at least know how to?" Magenta suggested, twirling a fork around by her head.

"Think of it as, like, a self-defense class." Will said. "It doesn't necessarily have to be about hurting other people, it's about protecting yourself. It's all about how you use it."

"Maybe." Layla said, although her tone didn't sound at all convinced. "I have an appointment at the office tomorrow – I intend to give Principal Powers a piece of my mind."

The others all looked at each other across the table with raised eyebrows and hardly suppressed grins, thinking they had a very good idea of how the conversation would go.

It was almost as if nothing'd changed, them all laughing in the cafeteria, poking a bit nervously at whatever food'd been plunked on their trays for the day and making fun of each other.

Except Will's eyes didn't meet anyone's when Magenta made a snide hippie comment – instead he only glanced up at an empty seat and he had to think about keeping his expression from falling.

This was his first year without Warren. It still didn't really seem real, this summer had been largely normal, just like any other. But now the gap was quickly becoming obvious. He kept expecting to see Warren around every corner, even though the rational side of his mind knew full well it wasn't coming.

Warren has moved on with his life. Of course he had. And Will was still here, for another year, just like he was supposed to be. Everything was going according to plan.

But that didn't stop it from feeling weird, from the jolt of shock at seeing some new face at Warren's locker, to there being an empty space at the lunch table.

Excepting the first few months, Warren had been there for him all throughout high school so far. Honestly, Will didn't know how to do high school without him.

* * *

"A cat up a tree?" Warren asked, his voice emotionless but his glare decidedly less so. "Seriously?"

"Yes." The middle-aged woman responded defensively, arms crossed across her chest.

"We're happy to help ma'am." Abby said with a large smile. "Your cat will be safe again in no time."

"Thank you." The woman quavered out, but her gaze still flickered suspiciously to Warren.

Warren shook his head, disgusted. "A cat? This is our mission?"

"Come on, hot-head." Abby ordered through her grin, steering him towards the tree. "A mission is a mission."

"This isn't a mission." Warren growled out of the corner of his mouth as he stalked towards the tree. Abby turned and gave a cheery wave back towards the woman before staring up at it as well.

The cat was high up, a swatch of black between the green. It showed no inclination of even attempting to get down.

"How are we supposed to do this?"

"Why'd they send us?" Warren asked. "The fire department could do this."

"Maybe I could build some stairs out of ice, and one of us could climb up and get it down." Abby ventured.

"Yes, that sounds very safe." Warren said sarcastically. "Ice stairs."

"Do you have any better ideas?"

"We could burn the whole tree down."

"I'm serious."

"So was I."

"Do you want to ever get another mission or not?"

Warren exhaled. "Our powers aren't going to be much use here. We'll have to climb the tree. Here, get on my shoulders."

"We'll?" Abby asked, frowning as he knelt down. "Seems more like 'I'll'." But she climbed onto his shoulders, and managed to cling to a tree branch, hoisting herself up.

Warren stepped back, watching as she scaled the tree higher, closer to that cat. He glanced back at the woman scrutinizing them. How had supers gotten this job anyway? Wasn't this what the fire department was for? He waved once at her. She just stared. He put his hand down. Civilians.

Abby had made it up to the cat's level. "Here kitty!" she called out, beckoning for it. It simply stared at her. She made some clicking noises with her teeth. "Here, kitty kitty kitty!"

Warren, very professionally, held in his urge to snicker or smirk.

The cat didn't even deign to glance at her. Abby stared back down at Warren, her eyes clearly conveying her frustration.

"Now would be a good time to tell me you're secretly an animal person." She suggested.

Warren shrugged up at her.

She continued her cat noises, and the cat finally glanced at her – and then promptly turned away again. Abby carefully slid a foot closer, trying to inch herself closer to the offending creature, but the whole branch shook and the woman watching gave a small screech as her precious pet wobbled dangerously. Abby returned to her perch.

She sat there for a moment, then looked down at Warren again. "You want to try?" she asked.

"I'm even bigger than you are, there's no way I'd be able to get out there." Warren stated, arms crossed.

"Alright then." Abby said, clutching the tree. "I guess we'll just take the whole branch down."

"Sounds good." Warren said.

There was a sparkly mist for an instant, and she formed an icicle in her hand, poised it over the branch, beckoning for the cat one last time.

"Come on." Warren called up to her. "It's not moving." They'd wasted enough time on this stupid assignment already.

"You're gonna have to catch it." Abby called back. "Are you ready?"

Warren raised up both hands. "Not doing anything else.", and fixed his eyes on the branch.

With a practiced motion, Abby raised her hand and brought it swiftly down, effectively breaking the branch off of the tree.

The wood cracked and snapped, the cat yet out a distinctly inhuman yowl, its claws only digging tighter into the branch, and the civilian let out another utterly useless scream.

The branch had been high, but it plummeted the distance to the ground in less than a second. Warren lunged forward a step, nabbing it before it made contact – and then it burst into flames.

Warren cursed, instantly dropping the branch – he hadn't meant to light it on fire, he didn't know what had happened – he must've unconsciously heated up his hands.

The cat was yowling, the woman was screaming, Warren desperately tried to put out the fire with his hands, trying to smother it, but setting fires was his thing, not putting them out.

"Warren!"

A voice pierced through the chaos, and Warren managed to look up for a second to see Abby gesturing wildly.

"Get the cat!" She shouted, scrambling down from the tree. "I can put out the fire!"

The cat was yowling, sounding as if it were possessed, spazzing around on the grass. Warren kicked the branch further away from it and crouched down, trying to calm it, if just to get close enough to put out the sparks, but it clearly wanted nothing to do with him. Honestly, Warren couldn't blame it, but he didn't have time for this.

It was a slippery thing, but Warren hadn't suffered through four years of P & E for nothing. He managed to bodyslam it to the ground, locking the creature in a chokehold with his elbow.

Suddenly, the fires were out, replaced with little piles of hail. Warren glanced up. Abby was crouched on the ground, panting. She zapped another group of sparks smoldering near the base of the tree, then turned back to Warren.

"Got it?"

Warren rose to his feet, holding the thing up. It dangled by the tail, glaring with half-hearted hisses, far from the fluffy snowball it had been just a few minutes ago, its charred, blackened fur was burned off in patches and was giving off a smell of burnt popcorn.

A wail suddenly emitted from behind him, and Warren slowly turned around. The woman shrieked louder, running several steps towards Warren and her precious cat, then stopping a safe distance away.

"Is he alive? What did you do to him!"

"You're cat's fine." Warren growled. At least he'd damned well better be, after all the trouble they'd just gone through to save him.

"You – you –" The woman stammered through hands covering her mouth, eyes skittering between Warren's face and her beloved pet, whose shock was gradually wearing off and was beginning to make signs of struggle again. "You burned him!"

"It's fine." Warren said flatly, with a menacing undertone. "It's its own fault it got a little burnt. It wouldn't get out of the tree."

"I know that! That's why I called you!" She shrieked.

"Calm down, we got your cat out okay!" Warren snapped.

"Okay! That is not okay! He's half dead!"

"He's not half dead!" The claws were beginning to come out, so Warren tossed the creature towards her. It landed with a yowel, but on its feet, and she scrambled to clutch it to her chest.

"You poor baby!" She crooned, cradling the animal like a child. Her expression changed drastically as she looked back up at the pair of them. "I could have called the fire department to handle this! In fact, maybe I still should!"

"You called us to get the cat out of the tree." Warren growled, slamming a fist into his palm. "Look – there, you have your cat back – what's wrong now!"

"What's wrong! What's wrong is that you mauled the tree and blasted my cat with a fireball! That's what's wrong!"

"Ma'am?" Abby said tentatively, taking a small step forward. Warren crossed his arms furiously. "Would you like us to take your cat to a veterinarian clinic, to make absolutely sure he's unharmed?"

"I would not!" She snapped, turning so the cat was further away from them. "I think you've done quite enough!"

"Look lady," Warren snapped. "I don't know what you were expecting, but we got your cat out of the tree, and it's fine! You're overreacting! It's a cat!"

"Listen up hotshot!" Her eyes were boring a hole straight through his throat.

"Maybe –" Abby tried to pipe up again.

"No, you listen!" Warren demanded. "We came here to help _you_. Our job is to serve _you_. You don't get to lecture us on how everything isn't done to your satisfaction, when we've done it all for you!"

"Not to my satisfaction!" Her high pitched laugh came out more as a screech than an expression of mirth. "It wasn't done at all! You consider yourself a super? You nearly killed my cat – and could have burned down the whole neighborhood! The situation was clearly out of control! You're lucky he wasn't killed!"

"I _am_ a super!" Warren shouted back, outraged. "You don't have any idea how we work – what!"

He looked down abruptly at something tugging at his arm, to find that Abby had crept up next to him.

"We're sorry. We hope you're cat's alright. We'll be leaving now." She said firmly, looking at the woman.

Warren wasn't sure if it was just his fury, or if there actually was steam rising off of him.

"Good riddance." She called out to their retreating backs. "I'll be calling your superiors! You're lucky I don't sue!"


	2. Chapter 2

"All-righty students," Mr. Boy said in a chipper voice, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "Settle down, settle down. I'm sure you're going to want to hear this!"

Will doubted this, but was paying attention.

"Now, as you are all seniors now,"

Will added his voice to the roar that filled the room. Mr. Boy grinned for a few seconds, letting them vent their excitement.

"Yes, yes," He said through a smile, glancing down at his papers as the celebration died down. "Very – very nice. Very – exciting. An exciting time. Now, as I was, as I was saying. It's time for each of you to be assigned a mentor."

Will was crossing his fingers for someone good. As in not his parents. Please, anyone but them. Of course he wanted someone good, someone like Thunderhorse, that would be awesome. He'd already begged for Ron Wilson – bus driver – but apparently he hadn't been an active super long enough to be a mentor yet. e'd a

"We will be distributing your mentors' names," Mr. Boy continued. "As you exit. The sheet will have their, their contact information, which you should use to – to – to contact them. As soon as, as possible."

His parents had already imparted too much life advice onto Will. If one of them were his mentor too, he wasn't sure he'd be able to take it. It would be like always being in school . . .

"So, if you would all line up in, in an orderly fashion to receive your assignments," Mr. Boy's voice rose. "In alphabetica-ca-cally order, please!"

A stampede thundered down the stairs towards Mr. Boy, and he shrank backwards as quickly as possible.

Will glanced around. Powers were only allowed in the gym – but they were right next to the gym. Same thing. He avoided the throngs of students, gliding down safely from the bleachers.

He was still stuck lounging back in the 'S's some time later, the line slowly inching forwards as he waited for his turn to receive the envelope.

"Hey, Will!" A voice shouted from up at the front. "Will! Will!"

Will craned his neck to find the source. Zach, already a head taller than most of the crowd, was bouncing up and down as if there were springs in the soles of his shoes.

"Guess what!" He demanded, jumping to Will's side and clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"What?" Will asked with an eager smile. "You get your mentor?"

"Yeaa!" Zach crowed. "And look! It's the one, the only – " He thrust the paper before Will. "Your dad!"

"Cool man!" Will crowed, high-fiving him. Even if he didn't quite understand the enthusiasm, he was glad his friend was happy, and glad that it probably meant his dad was out of the running for him now. "Now you'll get to spend even more time at my house!"

"I know, right!" Zach exploded. "Hey," he said, crouching down slightly and making every effort to bring his voice down to a whisper. "Do you think he'll let me see the secret sanctum?"

"I dunno," Will said with a wry grin, rubbing the back of his neck. "The last time someone let someone in there . . . things got a little crazy." He slapped Zach on the shoulder. "So I probably shouldn't say but – the chances are good."

Zach's smile itself seemed to be giving off laser beams. Will thanked the gods that he was safe from having to endure his dad as a mentor, and was praying he'd be half as satisfied with his mentor.

The line inched forward at a snail's pace. Finally, after 'Stewart, Lisa' walked away with the yellow envelope in hand, it was Will's turn at the table.

"Mr. Stronghold." Mr. Boy said, working to keep his voice appropriately professional.

"Hello Mr. Boy." Will said. "How was your summer?"

"Fine, just fine, thank you kindly." He replied, ducking his head several times. "And how have you been? How's your mother?"

"She's doing good." Will answered, nodding.

"Well, now, let's see." Mr. Boy said, quickly looking down at the stack of envelopes in his hand. "Here you go – William Stronghold."

Will took the envelope, flashed a wide smile, and said "Thanks Mr. Boy." The instant he stepped out the gym doors, he ripped the paper apart.

"Mr. Halfside."

As in Zach Halfside. Zach's dad.

Will had to concentrate on not letting his expression fall. Instead, it just kind of froze in place, awkwardly, not knowing what to do. He remembered, guiltily, how excited Zach had been to get his dad.

This was a good thing, Will thought to himself, trying to muster up half the level of excitement he knew Zach'd have when he found out. He'd said anyone but his own parents, right? And knowing Mr. Halfside, it wasn't like this was going to involve any difficult work.

It would be fine. It would be good. It didn't matter that he was, had been, a sidekick.

He shoved the paper into his backpack as he walked out into the hall, squaring his shoulders. So it wasn't the best situation. Oh well. He would deal. It definitely wasn't the worst either. And no, he wasn't disappointed.

* * *

The cafeteria was the same as it has always been – dingy tile, creaky tables, and mystery meat featuring prominently on the menu. But now, this was comfortable territory, a place where Will could and did slide easily into the seat Ethan had saved for him at their usual table. He'd realized it wasn't a jungle by now – or at least come to be used to it.

The freshmen clearly still saw a wilderness before them, standing huddled on the side, waiting for friends, nervously skittering away as upperclassmen brushed them out of their usual lunch spots.

God, was he glad to be done with that stage.

"So Will, I was thinking," Zach said as they settled in a their lunch table.

"Dangerous territory." Magenta quipped.

"I. Could be. Your manager." He grinned brilliantly.

Will grinned back. "My manager?" He asked, biting into an apple. "What do I need a manager for?"

"Save the citizen!" Zach blurted, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"No offense Zach, but I think I need a partner for Save the Citizen more than a manager."

"Exactly!" Zach's palm slammed down on the table. "Don't you see? Now that Warren's gone, there are going to be people clamoring to get in on that action! How are you supposed to choose? Who should you bother getting to know? Who can you pass over? Who'll give you the best deal? That's," Zach held up a hand to ward off any interruptions. "Where I come in. Your manager."

"Sure." Will said, chewing. "You're hired."

"YES!" Zach pumped a fist. "Okay, I'm going to have to ask you all to move – do any of you even have an appointment – give him room to breathe, jesus Christ Magenta you're crowding the man!"

"As if save the citizen needed to get any more hyped up." Layla said, rolling her eyes.

"Layla, you are entirely missing the point of the manager. My job is to manage the hype, so that Will doesn't have to deal with the stress!"

"I'm more worried about the stress of homework than of save the citizen. Save the citizen I handle. Statistics, I'm not so sure."

"I've heard Ms. Geffrey is a demon." Magenta said seriously.

"Oh come on Magenta," Ethan said.

"No, really." She insisted. "I hear she breathes fire."

"Literally?"

"Yeah. They called her the dragon when she was still fighting crime."

"Yikes." Will said, stabbing a fork down at his plate. "So, uh, study group you guys?"

"Definitely." Layla agreed with a grimace.

They all nodded their affirmation, but Will was sure he wasn't the only one who felt a wave of relief.

He honestly hadn't been sure if their study group would survive to senior year. Warren was gone, he and Layla were over and as a result incredibly awkward, and Magenta and Zach's on again off again relationship left the waters pretty murky.

He needed the study group. He needed his friends. H needed them all to make it through.

* * *

"Well son," The commander boomed, clapping Zach heartily on the back. "Did I luck out getting you as a mentee."

"Yes sir!" Zach exclaimed, his eyes glowing with pride and excitement.

"Now I'm going to let you know, right off the bat," He said, placing his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest. "I'm not going to let you off easy. You're going to have to work, probably harder than you ever have before. But," He leaned closer to Zach – who was nearly hyperventilating – and with a conspiratorial wink, said "if you put your all into it, I promise you, it'll be worth it."

He leaned back, self-satisfied. Zach stood there, stunned stiff, for several seconds. "Y – ye – es Sir, Commander!" He practically shouted, his arm spazzing into a version of a salute.

"Fine boy, good work." The Commander commended, nodding sternly. "I like your spirit! Now," He clapped his hands together. "I just have one question for you son. Just to make sure you're ready for everything that's to come next."

Zach's mouth had dropped open, as he stared at the Commander with complete and utter concentration.

"What are the four most sacred values of a super?"

"Dedication strength honor vigilance!" Zach shouted in one breath, the second the words had left the Commander's mouth, bouncing up, face ecstatic

"Exactly!" The Commander praised, swinging his arm and leaning back. "You are truly a catch Zach, truly. And most definitely ready." He walked over to the wall, taking a book off of the shelf. "I think it's time to show you the secret sanctum."

Zach fainted dead away.

* * *

The Strongholds and the Halfsides had always been close friends. Will had grown up knowing Zach, and Zach's dad had always been a friendly presence whenever he'd gone over to his house. He remembered him having kicked him and Zach off of the tv and away from video games once or twice, but other than that, he couldn't remember having born him any ill will or resentment.

The only thing was, it was like the saying went, like father like son. Knowing his dad, it was no mystery where some of Zach's personality traits came from. Will wasn't trying to be a snob. He was all for equal rights. He didn't care at all, he wasn't complaining about having gotten a sidekick as a mentor. He'd been the first to put his name down on the petition after Homecoming freshman year! It was just, he wasn't sure how much he was going to be able to learn from him.

Like right now, for instance, sitting across from Mr. Halfside in the grimy fast food joint.

On the one hand, things were going great, Mr. Halfside had paid for his lunch, and Will was a big eater. It was like going out for food with your cool uncle or something.

But, Will was also dreading having to write up the report about how Mr. Halfside was explaining his expertise in spinning nickels – _with his hands two whole inches away_.

Mr. Halfside's power was magnetism. The human refrigerator. This could have been awesome. No, it still was pretty cool. It was a commendable power. Only, he couldn't generate very strong forces. He was limited to, you know. Spinning coins without touching them.

"Well now Willie,"

That was another thing. Will had corrected him at least ten times by now. It was looking hopeless.

"This has been great, but we can't just have fun and games all day. Time to get some actual learning in, huh?"

Will straightened up, nodding emphatically. "Yes sir." He agreed. Should he get out a notebook? Was he supposed to be taking notes? If he knew Ethan and Layla, they would both be taking avid notes. He reached for his backpack, trying to slip out some paper without breaking eye contact, knocking a few things on the floor in the process.

"Whoops," He said, reaching to the floor.

"No need!" Mr. Halfside said, and with a flourish of his hand attracted the pen back up to the table with a snap.

Will grinned. "Thanks."

"Okay, so your turn!" Mr. Halfside said, grinning. Will grinned back, completely unsure as to the task. Pick up a pen? What? Great, he'd missed something already, he knew he should've been taking notes!

"Something small, using your powers, that can help someone out. It doesn't have to be anything big! Just like picking up a pen. Be creative!"

"Okay," Will said, nodding, scanning the restaurant.

Mr. Halfside nodded. "Our powers exist fundamentally to make the world a better place. So anything you can do to make someone's day a little easier – even the smallest thing – is a good step."

This shouldn't be too hard . . .

First off, super strength, flying, or both? Both, definitely, he answered himself. Next question – what to apply it to? There were a couple people waiting in line, but the cashier didn't really look like she needed any help. People were scattered around at different tables. He could fly them extra napkins? There was a lady mopping up the floor across the restaurant.

Perfect.

She dunked the mop back in the bucket of water, leaning over to reach under one of the stain-marked tables. Will flew over confidently.

"Allow me, ma'am." He stated.

She stared up, mouth slightly agape, at his floating figure.

Will leaned down to tip the table upward, thereby allowing her to continue more easily, without straining her back. Man, this report was going to write itself.

There was a sickening crunch, and Will looked down at his hands in alarm.

A curse flitted through his mind. The table was lifted up alright – a couple feet above ground now, along with the floor tiles he'd apparently ripped out along with it.

She was really staring at him, aghast now, backing away.

"It – it's okay!" Will assured her immediately. "I can fix this!" He glanced back over his shoulder desperately at Mr. Halfside, then turned back to the table issue.

He slowly lowered it back to the ground, trying to place it exactly back into the hole he'd just made.

How had he been supposed to know the tables were bolted to the floor? Who did that, anyway?

Will's feet clattered to the ground unsteadily. Well, it was back in its place … mostly. It was a little crooked, and the tiles were still crumpled and uneven.

"Alright, alright everybody." Mr. Halfside said, suddenly appearing beside him. Will felt as though he had shrunk to half his height. "Terribly sorry about all the trouble ma'am." He said, leaning closer to whisper quietly in her ear, scribbling something on a business card, and enclosing it to her. She nodded. "Super training, you know?"

"Yes." She smiled hesitantly at Will, who looked fearfully back. "A table broken by a Stronghold really isn't too much of a loss. Could you autograph it maybe?"

"Huh?" Will eloquently responded. "Oh – uh, sure."

"It's okay Will." Mr. Halfside said comfortingly as Will scribbled on the plastic surface in sharpie. "Most supers-in-training have trouble on their first tries."

Yeah! Will screamed in his head. But not him! Not anymore! He was a Stronghold! A double threat! This stuff was supposed to come easily to him! This was practically the only thing he was good at! And now he'd even managed to be shown up in this by a middle-aged sidekick!

"And sometimes the first, smallest steps are the hardest ones."

Deep breaths Will, deep breaths. He was fine. This wasn't like the beginning of Sky High. He had two powers. Two kick-ass powers. This was just a minor screw up. It didn't matter. Mr. Halfside didn't think it mattered.

"Come on Will, you ready to go?"

"Yeah." Will muttered.

He had been expecting to pass with flying colors. He'd expected Mr. Halfside to be the stunned one, quickly realizing he had very little left to teach Will.

Will was the first to admit that the majority of the time he was a screw up. With pretty much everything he just muddled through and hoped that his good intentions would make everything turn out alright. But just using his powers. Just a simple task, use your powers. That was supposed to be what he was good at. The one thing that he was good at. Why couldn't he even handle that?

* * *

Will slumped into a chair in the Halfside's kitchen, his head sinking into his hand. Zach and his own dad weren't back yet. He was glad that the first session was finally over, but honestly Zach was not the first person he wanted to see.

"Heya Willie, why don't you flip on the news? Want anything to drink?"

"Sure!" Will said, trying to inject some brightness into his tone as he reached for the remote. "Do you have any sprite?"

"Yes siree bob!" Mr. Halfside replied, pulling open the refrigerator. Will just smiled in response, not sure he could trust himself with more words in reply to that.

He'd already known that he'd have to deal with Zach gushing about what it'd been like to work with The Commander. Which was fine, except that The Commander was his dad, and honestly his dad fine, but he wasn't the greatest man to ever walk the planet and Will certainly didn't need to hear a list of all his virtues from his best friend.

And now, if Zach came back with a success story, which of course he would, Will was going to have to put up with that too, listening to how great Zach had been while he'd been a disaster. Of course he wanted Zach to do well. He just didn't want to have to hear about it and pretend to be happy for him when all he really wanted to do was mope about himself.

Will stared at the TV screen moodily – then his mouth dropped open. Warren. Warren was on the TV.

He leaned forward in his chair. It was unmistakably Warren, his grainy image, likely a cell phone video, flitting across the screen, grabbing a cat out of a tree.

Great. All of his friends were off being real heroes, while he couldn't even handle a simple homework assignment.

"Here ya go." Mr. Halfside said, setting the can down beside him.

"Thanks." Will said, not looking at him, still mesmerized by the screen.

"You know, I bet I'm related to her." Mr. Halfside said, seeing Will had been distracted by the TV.

"Ab – Frostbite?"

"Yep. You know – freezing, the human refrigerator? I wouldn't be surprised."

Will highly doubted this, but he nodded his head politely.

"So, how ya holding up?"

"Fine." Will said, scratching behind his ear.

"It's all about gaining experience."

"I already have experience," slipped out of Will's mouth. He winced, and looked hesitantly up at Mr. Halfside. "I just mean," he said, taking the soda can, "I've already saved the world. I thought this would be easier."

"We all have to move at our own pace. Maybe you've skipped straight on to the great things – and that's fantastic. But you shouldn't ignore the smaller things either."

Will nodded and took a sip. "Thanks."

"No problemo Willie."


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey babe." Warren said, opening the door.

"Hey." Abby responded shortly, her mouth puckered.

Warren dropped his keys on the table, kicking his shoes off across the room.

"The conference list came out." Abby said abruptly, facing the wall.

"Uh huh." Warren said. "The trans-nation peace cooperation one?" Abby nodded. "Cool. When is it?"

"Next week."

"Huh." Warren said, crossing over to her. "That doesn't give us a lot of time."

"We weren't on it." Abby said stiffly.

Warren looked at her. "What?"

She didn't repeat herself, simply looking at him.

"You're serious?" Warren said, staring. "We weren't invited?"

"Apparently not." She sighed, crossing her arms.

"There must be some kind of mistake," Warren said, eyes shifting. "Where's the list?"

"Here," Abby bent over the computer, pulling it up.

"Maybe our invitation's just late," Warren rationalized, scanning the page.

"They must have gone out weeks ago," Abby said softly. "Long before this list was posted." She sighed, glancing up to the ceiling. "We just weren't asked."

"How could we not have been asked?" Warren demanded incredulously. "Look!" he exploded. "Karen and David are on this list! They were both sidekicks!"

"There's no such thing as sidekicks anymore." Abby reminded him wearily.

"But they were!" Warren insisted, heated. "We're way more powerful than they are! We're practically the most powerful new super pair there is! How could they not have asked us?"

"I guess," Abby said delicately, "They didn't think we were good enough."

"We're not good enough, but all of them are?" Warren asked, brandishing a hand at the screen.

"We can't just depend on our powers." Abby said. "We have to perform well too."

Warren's face darkened. "Who needs some stupid conference anyway?" He asked, spinning away. "It would have been boring. We might have skipped it if we had been invited."

Abby was silent.

Warren hung his head, rubbing his forehead. "I'm sorry." He said at last, looking back up. "I know this was important to you. I'm sorry I screwed it up."

"You didn't screw it up." Abby replied.

"That cat thing –"

"They judge it based on both of us." Abby cut him off. "We're a team, remember?"

Warren nodded. "There will be other conferences."

"Yeah." Abby agreed, without much emotion.

She sighed, sinking into a chair, and lowering her head to her hands. Warren slowly sat opposite her. There was a long silence.

"We need to be better." Abby said at last.

"We will be." Warren promised her.

* * *

"Now, we're all adults here. We can surely discuss this rationally." Battle clapped his hands together. "Who wants who?"

"Remind me again why the Strongholds are off the table." Royal Pain asked, her eyes narrowed.

Battle sighed, briefly touching a hand to his head. "We've been over this, Pain. The Strongholds are our final goal, and to take them out, we need to have a united front attack them, and we need to wait for the right moment. For now, we're concentrating on the annoying teenagers."

"One of the Strongholds is an annoying teenager."

"Yes, but since he is a Stronghold, you'll just have to wait. Really, you're starting to be a royal pain in the –"

"I call the light-bulb!" Sam blurted out.

"Sam!" Susy screeched. "You do not call dibs before me!"

"Uh, I just did."

"Someone catch me up here . . ." King Kamaomao said, leaning forward with squinted eyes. "Who's this light-bulb, again?"

Battle leaned his head against an equally weary hand. "Good lord, if we can't even divide up a bunch of teenagers, I shudder to think how we'll divvy up the Atlantic."

* * *

"How'd it go yesterday?" Layla asked, breaking off a piece of her granola bar.

"Pretty good, actually." Magenta said, nodding. "Better than I expected, really. I mean, I know it's your mom, so it's a little weird, but she was pretty cool. I just hope she won't decide I'm a bad influence if I don't do my homework a couple times."

"She's had plenty of opportunities to decide you're a bad influence before now." Layla pointed out, smiling.

"Yeah," Magenta agreed. "What about yours? How'd it go?"

"It went fine!" Layla said brightly. "She's very nice, I think we're going to get along really well."

Magenta looked at her. "But?" She prodded.

"Well," Layla said, and suddenly began to gush. "She just seemed kind of surprised that I wanted to be an active super, you know? Because of my whole non-violence thing, I guess she though I was going to go into research or something.

"And I don't know. I always thought I'd become a regular super, and I never saw my values as being a problem with that, but everyone else apparently thinks they are."

"Screw them."

"But, what if I honestly haven't considered all my options here? Maybe that would be a better path for me. Maybe I'd be happier there. Sometimes I think I would."

Magenta shrugged. "It's up to you. You're the only one who can know that."

Layla rolled her neck, lips pursed. "I want to be a super." She said definitively. "Just a different kind of super. One that doesn't instantly resort to violence. I plan on advocating and working to make changes too, but I can do that while being a super."

"Then do it." Magenta said equally calmly, taking another bite of her sandwich. "What's stopping you?"

Layla rolled her eyes, the edge of her mouth quirking up. "Only everything."

Magenta's eyebrow rose. "Shut up. Since when has that bothered you?"

Layla laughed. "You won't even let me indulge in a _moment_ of self pity?"

"Not a chance." Magenta said, grinning. "You've got enough going for you already."

* * *

"Really, Barren!" Carol protested. "These are Warren's friends! You came out saying you wanted to build a relationship with him – that's not going to happen if you kill them off."

Battle shrugged. "He'll make new friends."

"I mean it, Barren." Carol said, staring at the grainy image of him on her tv. She knew full well he could have made himself appear in HD if he had wanted to. "If you love him at all, you can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?" Battle asked, spinning a pen around his finger. "I haven't done anything yet."

"Don't play dumb." Carol crossed her arms, pulling back. "You already threatened Abby – which you must have realized didn't go over well with Warren."

Battle shrugged again. "Got the job done."

"And I don't know what all happened with Will Stronghold," Carol continued. "But at any rate, it certainly didn't bring Warren and you any closer."

Battle paused for a moment, but quickly launched himself into indifference again. "Really, Carol, this is just like puppy love for his friends! He'll get over it!"

"Friendship isn't something you just 'get over', Barren!" Carol exclaimed. "Maybe not all of them will last, but maybe they will. What about his future? What kind of future will he have if you alienate everyone he ever liked?"

"He's eighteen," Battle scoffed. "What does he know of the future?"

"Maybe not much now," Carol conceded. "But it's going to come one day, Barren, sooner than either of us think. He's already a real super now. You have to start thinking of the consequences. What if Warren and Abby get married? What will you tell your grandkids, that you held their mother hostage the first time you met her?"

"What?" Battle exclaimed. "They hardly know each other Carol, you're getting ahead of yourself. Besides, Warren's not the marrying type."

"So you're saying he takes after you?"

"No." Battle's mouth tightened. "I married you, didn't I?"

Carol didn't respond. "Just talk to him, Barren. He's your son. If you have to take over the world, fine. But leave him and his friends out of it."

"I'd be perfectly happy to." Battle said blithely. "But the little buggers don't know how to keep their noses clean."

But Carol had known Battle long enough to tell that, underneath the façade, she had reached him.

* * *

"Guys, this is so illegal." Layla moaned, shifting onto her other foot.

"Well we already only bought three tickets, and it's all sold out now. It's kind of too late to change the plan now."

"It's fine Layla, stop whining." Magenta squeaked, poking her guinea pig head out of Zach's jacket. "Now let Ethan get in your purse and we can go in."

"We're breaking the law," Layla hissed, but she obligingly opened up her bag. Ethan stuck in his hand and instantly melted, goop pooling to the bottom of her purse.

"Dude, that's gross." Zach said admiringly.

"Okay, come on guys." Will said. "I want to be able to actually see them."

Like Layla, he was honestly a bit nervous about this too. He knew Magenta'd done the guinea pig routine before with Warren at concerts, but it would still definitely be classified as an abuse of powers if they got caught, more than just a slap on the hand for using powers outside the gymnasium. He wasn't sorry either though. Concert tickets were frigging expensive.

This might've been the first time they'd all hung out together since school had started. Of course they still sat together at lunch most of the time, but that wasn't the same thing as hanging out outside of school.

As soon as they got in Magenta was back on her feet and her and Zach went off like a shot, weaseling through the crowd like ferrets squirming as close as they could get to the stage. Ethan melted off somewhere too, a talent he'd perfected back when Will and Layla were dating to avoid being the fifth wheel. Back then, Will had appreciated it. Now? He was searching the crowd desperately for his scrawny savior. Because a couple months ago, this would've been a date. Now? Now it was just awkward. Painfully, painfully awkward.

"I hope no Ethan bits got stuck in my phone," Layla said, typing furiously.

"Well, he didn't look like he was missing any fingers." Will joked.

"Here – smile!"

Will grinned abruptly at the command, smiling back at the flash of light as Layla leaned in to get in the picture as well.

"That's great," she said, staring down at the screen as Will blinked the light away. "So," she said, shoving the phone away into a back pocket. Will'd actually been beginning to think that facebooking until the music started wouldn'tve been a bad idea. "You excited?"

"Yeah." Will responded truthfully. He was just having second thoughts on if it was worth struggling through all of this.

Layla nodded, "Me too," and they stood there, nodding at each other as the crowd pulsed and shouted around them.

"I think I see Magenta up there," Will lied through his teeth to burst out of the suffocating silence. "They've probably got a good spot, wanna see if we can get up to them?"

"Absolutely!" Layla agreed immediately.


	4. Chapter 4

After having begged off of Mr. Halfside, Will had made his way over to Warren's apartment. He knew that Layla would have heartily disapproved of this behavior, but he needed a mental health day. Or morning, at least. Besides, she wasn't his girlfriend anymore, so he had a right to ignore her now. Right?

He rapped on the door, careful not to knock to hard and break in by accident – he had way too much experience with that, and rocked back on his heels, waiting for Warren to get around to answering the door.

And waiting. Then again, he didn't have all day. He rapped again, a little harder. The door luckily remained intact, but also firmly closed. He listened closely. It didn't sound like there were any Warren-esque footsteps rushing to welcome him in. He knocked again.

At last, the door swung open, revealing a glaring Warren, who closed his eyes as it was revealed to be Will, pressing a few fingers to his forehead.

"Hey Warren!"

"Will. I should have known."

"Dude, put a shirt on." Will said, walking in.

"You woke us up." Warren replied, grumpily, still holding the door open.

"It's like ten already, what are you –" Will stopped in his tracks, suddenly realizing that they weren't alone in the room.

A mass of blond hair was rising from the bed. "Hey Will." A voice scratched out.

Oh. 'Us'.

Will could feel his face heating up, but didn't even care in light of this situation. It took him a few seconds to recover from his temporary speechlessness, before he squeaked out. "Oh. Hi, Abby. I – I didn't, didn't realize,"

He wasn't even sure what he was saying, so he tapered off as she wasn't even listening anymore, having slowly sat up and was now staring at the floor.

Warren had finally closed the door and was standing in the middle of the room, arms crossed, but eyes glazed over, as if he too were mentally still in bed.

"What do you want, Will?" Warren asked, not unkindly, but rather sleepily.

"I, uh, I just came over to see you," Will forced out lamely.

Why was there only one room in this apartment? Why was there not a separate bedroom? Why would anyone make a living space without a separate bedroom? Who in their right mind would put the bed within view of the door?

"To, you know, talk. Before I have to go back to school, in a couple hours."

How was he supposed to have known anyway?

"Yeah, cool." Warren said, glancing over at Abby. "You want to walk?"

"Sure." Will immediately agreed. Warren nodded absently, wandering away – hopefully to put some clothes on. And brush his teeth. Will continued to stand awkwardly in the middle. Abby did not seem particularly inclined to break the awkward silence as he glanced over at her, and then promptly glanced away, as it seemed like all she was wearing was a huge shirt.

Seriously, what was wrong with them? Did they only have one set of clothes that they had to split between them?

Will guessed that Warren got ready pretty fast for a guy that had just woken up. It sure didn't seem like it though, to the contrary, it felt like hours.

Abby made a noise as Warren headed towards the door, and Warren glanced back over his shoulder.

"Uh huh."

"Mmm . . . and . . ."

"Yeah, I won't forget the whole grain."

Despite the complete innocence of the moment, Will felt as if her were entrenching on something intensely private, almost as if he . . . well, was repeating what had happened five minutes ago. He didn't belong here, everything about this was clearly just for them two.

Abby gave a sigh and murmured something.

"Love you too babe." Warren said, pushing Will ahead of him and closing the door behind them.

* * *

Warren pulled his hair back into a ponytail as they walked out the door. Will stared at him, head tilted slightly.

"So you, like, have to do that all the time now?" he inquired.

"The hair? Yeah, part of the civilian-hero disguise, since I wasn't about to cut it."

"That sucks."

"Eh, it's not that bad. Apparently it's even worse for the girls. They wanted Abby to curl her hair every time she changed to hero, but she wouldn't go for that."

"That's what my mom does." Will said offhandedly. "And . . . uh . . . about Abby . . ."

"It's cool." Warren said abruptly.

"Oh. Cool." Will said, relieved. "I'm sorry, I mean,"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Just don't make a habit of it."

"Definitely not." Will replied immediately. He really just wanted to drop the subject entirely, but he wasn't sure how to make the transition. And maybe part of him was curious. "So, uh, you guys, like . . . live . . . together . . . now?"

Warren grunted. "She crashes at my place sometimes, I crash at her place sometimes. And sometimes, we both crash at our own places." He shot Will a look. "It's no big deal."

"Of course not." Will agreed, not looking at Warren.

Oh my god, they were practically married.

"I guess that's how you got your own little language and everything too." That was good, that was good, make a joke and move on.

"Oh, that." Warren dismissed the comment. "She doesn't really talk before noon. And normally, I don't either." This earned Will another glare.

"Hey, I said I was sorry."

"Whatever."

"So, when are you guys going to be on tv again?"

Warren scowled. "I dunno. Whenever we do something hero-esque, I guess."

Great, he'd hit on another touchy subject. Could he do nothing right today?

"No one's beaten our record yet in Save the Citizen." He conveyed proudly.

With a grunt, Warren replied. "Good to know in high school I'm still undefeated."

Will hesitated, unsure if this should be taken as genuine or as sarcasm.

"Yeah."

For a few moments the only sound was their footsteps falling clunkily on the pavement.

"Look, I said I was sorry, if- "

"No, no dude," Warren cut him off, rubbing his hand over his face. "I said it was fine, I'm not mad." He exhaled heavily and looked at Will. "It's just being a super is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."

Will looked back at him hesitantly. "You're joking. You're really powerful Warren, I've fought with you, in Save the Citizen. You're an incredible super."

"I'm fine with Save the Citizen." Warren said. "I can save the citizen, we got that down. But it's a lot different when the citizen is screaming, or afraid of fire, or doesn't want to be saved. And there are rules, you can't just save the citizen in the easiest way. And then there's the paperwork, and all the other stupid assignments where nobody even has to be saved, and everybody's time is just being wasted, and it just all sucks."

"Hey man." Will said. "It's still got to be better than high school."

Warren looked at him for a second, then barked out a laugh, his face breaking into a smile as he punched Will in the arm.

"God dammit Stronghold, where do you get these words of wisdom from?"

Will just laughed in response.

"Whoah, dude." Will said, a glint of gold catching his eye. "You got an earring? When'd that happen?" Warren shrugged, his fingers absently rubbing over the metal piece. "You'd better watch out," Will teased. "With that long hair, and now the earring, people might start to mistake you for a girl."

Warren gave Will a look. "Who's the one with the girlfriend here?"

Will instantly sobered. "So, uh . . . has she said anything about me?" Neither of them needed to clarify who. He was trying hard not to sound hopeful, not even too interested. It wasn't like he cared. Not that much.

Warren looked straight ahead as he answered. "We don't talk about you, man."

"What are you talking about, your entire relationship is based on talking about me!" Will exclaimed, exasperated.

Warren couldn't help but grin, and nodded. "Will, look, I'm sorry, but I think she's kind of over you."

Will's heart was cold, an icy rock. No, that was wrong, he didn't even have a heart anymore, it was just a deep hole in his chest, one that those words had just punched right through.

"Oh." He said. Warren was still watching him critically. Trying to brush it off, he said "No, I mean, well, duh. That's why we broke up. It just wasn't happening anymore."

"Dude, admit it." Warren said. "You got dumped. It's no big deal, happens to everyone – even superhero prodigies."

"I didn't get dumped!" Will immediately defended himself, realizing even as he said it that it was hopeless. Even he didn't believe himself. "I mean, it's for the best, really."

Warren nodded. "So maybe it's time you moved on."

"I have moved on." Will said casually. Warren just looked at him. "I have!" He protested again.

"Then why'd you just ask about her?"

"I was curious!"

"Yeah you were."

"We're friends, that's great, I'm fine with it."

Warren sat down on a bench, leaning his arm over the back. "Okay." He said calmly. "If I believed you, that would be great."

"Me and Layla?" Will said. "Great friends. That parts true. Being friends with your ex?" He sighed. "Not so much fun."

"Hate to break it to you buddy," Warren said, "But they're the same thing now."

"I know." Will sighed. "I guess I only just figured that out."

"Layla probably thinks it's as awkward as you do."

"It just sucks man." Will sighed, dropping his head to his hands. "We all used to be such good friends, you know? Now we're all just, I don't know, drifting apart, I guess. And I hate it."

"People change, there's nothing you can do about that." Warren said. "But we're all still close. You guys are all still friends, right?"

"I guess," Will sighed. "But, I mean, you're off at college, and Abby, and Zach and Magenta are either attached or not talking now that they've started dating, and things are still weird between me and Layla, and I don't know, sometimes I think Ethan is the only one keeping us all together, but even he and Zach don't get along as well, since he's Magenta's best friend."

Warren was silent for a minute, then grunted "They were pretty annoying anyways."

"Dude."

Warren raised an eyebrow. "Come on though. You're really telling me we wouldn't be better off without detailed descriptions of Zach's every bodily function?"

"Seriously."

"Free from Magenta's snark, Ethan being better at everything, and we both know Layla's hippie-ness can be a lot to handle."

Will looked at Warren, a smile growing across his face. "You miss them," he accused happily.

Warren shot him a look. "Whatever."

"You do!" Will persisted, grinning from ear to ear.

"Big deal."

"You know, just because you graduated doesn't mean you have to stop hanging out with us."

"Dude, I don't have time." Warren said, flinging up a hand helplessly. "I've got these hero assignments all the time, and there's all the paperwork afterwards, which takes forever, and I'm still working at Paper Lantern, and even though college student is just a cover, I'm still trying to take some classes."

Will was highly sympathetic – and not at all looking forward to his likely similar workload next year, but couldn't help replying "So that's why you have time to sleep past ten every day." He smiled impishly as Warren glared at him.

"There was a fire at three in the morning today." He said flatly.

Will knew this was bad news, but his face still lit up with excitement. "Really? What did you do? Who else was there? What happened?" Real super assignments were ten times more exciting than the stupid scenarios he had to write endless papers about in school.

"I didn't get called onto the job. I got called in after. For questioning."

"What?" Will asked, deflating. "Questioning? They can't have thought you did it!"

"No, I don't think they really did. Even though they did have a mind reader there. Don't know why that was necessary. They mostly just wanted me to figure out how the fire was set. Wouldn't even ship me out to the location though, were just showing me pictures."

"Did you figure it out?" Optimism slowly crept back into Will's voice.

Warren shrugged. "Hope so. We'll see."

Will grinned, even though the news wasn't that great. He was just glad that Warren still seemed normal, that he hadn't suddenly transformed into a full-fledged adult overnight, beyond Will's understanding. Warren was still Warren, his best friend.

"But seriously," Warren said, over an hour later, glancing at his phone. "You really need to get to school. You need a ride?"

Will looked at him for a second, then shook his head pityingly. "When would I ever need a ride?" he asked, rising several feet into the air. Warren shrugged.

"But, yeah, I guess I'd better go back." Will said reluctantly.

"Dude, you've got senioritis real bad."

Will laughed. "Well I need to enjoy my last days before it finishes me off then, right?"

Warren shook his head at Will's antics and put on a deep, serious voice. "Stay in school, son."

Will laughed, soaring a few feet higher into the air. "Fine. I'll see you around?"

"Couldn't avoid you if I tried."

"It only took you four years to learn that." Will said, smiling as he shot off before any civilians would begin to notice, soaring into the clouds until Warren was only a dark speck on the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

Layla walked out of Sky High, frowning as she noticed that the surrounding clouds were starting to turn purple. She hadn't realized how late it was – she'd definitely missed the second bus.

With a sigh, she pulled out her phone. This super-taxi bill was going to be painful.

"Layla?"

She turned. Will was striding across the grass towards her, a smile breaking out across his face.

"Hey Will." She said, lowering her hand. "What's up?"

"I was just talking with Coach Boomer." Will said, thumbing over his shoulder towards the gym. "He's gonna let me plan out some parts of Save the Citizen for the freshmen. It's gonna be pretty sweet." There was more than a tinge of pride in his voice. "What about you? I didn't realize you were going to be here so late."

"I was talking with Principal Powers, and Mr. Medulla." Layla explained. "Class work, scheduling, you know. I didn't realize how much time had gone by."

"Yeah." Will said. "So, um – do you want ride home?"

Layla opened her mouth, and paused, staring at his sheepish smile. Once upon a time, this had been a normal occurrence. And . . . it still could be. Right? There was nothing romantic about him flying her off into the sunset.

"Well," she said, reshouldering her bag. "If it's not too much trouble."

"Of course it isn't – you do live right down the street from me, remember?"

"Okay." Layla smiled. "Well, that'd be great then. Thanks."

* * *

Okay, so it had been a little weird holding Layla flying the entire way home from Sky High. Will was slightly relieved when he was able to touch down and put her back on her own two feet. It wasn't that he hadn't liked it, in fact, it was more he had been afraid he might.

"Thanks Will," Layla said, pulling her bag closer to her.

"No problem."

"It was –"

"Well, well, well, isn't this sweet?" Her voice rang out clear and commanding, cutting crisply through the evening air. Royal Pain was striding down the middle of the street, cape flying out behind her. "You two ended up together after all."

"Oh no, no, we're not – Royal Pain? How did you get here?"

"What are you doing here?" Layla asked coldly, glaring her down.

"I thought it was about time for a high school reunion."

"Where's Stiches?" Layla asked menacingly. "Did he finally get tired of your company?"

Royal Pain's suit flared even brighter. "I told him he could stay home," she said sweetly. "I don't need anyone's help to get rid of a couple of side kicks."

"You're showing your age, Grayson," Layla shot back, spreading her hands out as vines began to creep out from both sides of the sidewalk. "No one uses the word sidekick anymore."

"Get your head out of the clouds, hippie. Sidekicks will always be sidekicks. Nothing you do can ever change that."

Vines shot out to grab Royal Pain at the same instant as Will lunged for her, flying down the street. He collided into her with a heavy thump, and the pair of them tumbled over onto the asphalt, flipping and turning until they finally crashed to the ground.

Will leaped to his feet. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Layla racing towards them. But Royal Pain was up already as well. Will swung his fist back and slammed it into her chest. Normally, he'd never hit a girl, but he figured super villains were the exception. She flew across the street, slamming to the ground with a satisfactory slap, but again got up much faster than Will'd expected.

Huge vines loaded with thorns shot out of the ground, wrapping around Pain, but they only bound her for an instant, her suit almost immediately shredded the bonds.

Will lunged for her again, but Pain took a super human leap out of the way, hurling a ball of energy towards Layla. She shot out a branch which took the hit for her, crumpling to the ground in a mound of ashes.

Will shot high up into the air as fast as he could, hovered for a split second, then zoomed back down, the air whipping past his face, towards Pain. He rammed into her, tackling her to the ground. She raised her arm to blast him back, but Will has been expecting that move. Her suit was almost as strong as he was – almost.

He forced her arm away and her shots went wild as they struggled for dominance. She kicked him in the stomach and Will went flying backwards, but Layla'd been busy too, a tree was literally growing around Pain, and was growing bigger faster than she could blast it apart.

Will popped back to his feet and flew into the air to remain at Pain's level as the tree grew and carried her further up into the air with it. He fumbled to pull his phone out of his pocket.

"I'll get my parents and the police down here," he called down to Layla, who was still standing on the ground, face stormy as she held her hands out, focusing on controlling the tree.

"Oh, I don't think that'll be necessary, Will," Royal Pain said calmly, ending her attack on the tree. "Not that I wouldn't love to see the Strongholds."

"I wasn't talking to you." Will said steely, raising the phone to his ear.

"But I'm talking to you, and this is the last time I will, so you better listen up," Royal Pain hissed. "I have big plans. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay out of it. Next time, I'm not gonna go so easy."

Before Will had a chance to reply, there was a blinding flash of light, the force of it slamming Will back to the ground.

He struggled back to his feet and to regain his vision. The huge tree was now a withered stump and scattered limbs.

Royal Pain was gone.

Will helped Layla to her feet and gave a half hearted laugh as he surveyed the street. "Looks like you're going to have to re-landscape our yards again."

Layla grimaced, taking in the same view. "I think that's the least of our problems."

* * *

Really, this was reason enough to go villain, Battle thought, examining critically the door. Who could bear living in such a tiny apartment?

A blond girl pulled the door open. Battle grinned at her. Her eyes widened and the door slammed shut. Battle grinned wider.

This was the first – no, the second – time he had seen her, face to face. He still wasn't sold on Carol's strange idea that there was something more to her than her looks. Not that he was particularly adverse to it, bravo to Warren. But she seemed a typical super to him, looks and flashy powers. That was how most got by.

Considering the absence of sound, Battle concluded that she was alone. Oh well, he could wait. But certainly not out here.

The lock has hardly a challenge, a few wires made short work of it, and he pushed the door open.

He was greeted with an ice block to the head. One of the wires, still sparking and coiling near his head, wrapped around it, forcing it to the floor before it could make contact.

Oh, now this was interesting. She wasn't a full-on ice girl. She was a freeze girl.

Honestly, it was just too easy.

She threw a few more furious ice balls as he took a couple steps inside and shut the door, getting a grasp on the electricity in the room and her timing. Then he had it.

The toaster worked quite nicely. With a buzz and a whirr, he had complete control, forcing it to rise and hover, closer to them. He waited for her to form another projectile – really, the hand motions completely gave it away – and the toaster struck just before the water froze.

Instant electrocution. She collapsed to the ground. Battle let the toaster and the wires fall as well, looking down at her. If she had a brain, he probably hadn't permanently screwed it up.

Battle sighed and began to clean up the mess he had made. College kids rooms could be such pig stys . . .

* * *

Magenta shoved another fistful of popcorn into her mouth, staring at the tv screen as she watched one of her best friends and her boyfriend attempt to kick the other's ass at MarioKart. She knew she could have slaughtered them both, easily, if she wasn't stuck on the phone. Her brother'd broken up with his fiancée. She sighed, shifting it closer to her ear and rolling her eyes. "Mhmmm." What could she say, she'd warned him she was an evil bitch. But her brother'd never reacted well to the tough love.

"Duuude! That's cheating!" Zach whined loudly, twisting the remote far to the right.

"Ha! It's called a powerup! You ever played this game before?"

"You won't be so smug when I come in first!"

"We'll never find out then!"

Magenta considered telling them to shut their faces – really, couldn't they tell she was on the phone? – but she didn't really care about hearing every word her brother was saying, so she let it slide.

"Nononononononono –"

"Yeah! Take that!"

"Surprise."

Magenta was not a girl easily surprised, but when she looked up at this new voice, her mouth dropped open. Susy and Sam were standing in the middle of her living room.

"Yeah . . . I'm gonna have to call you back." She said to her brother, slowly lowering her phone.

Zach had dropped his remote and fallen behind the couch in his knee jerk effort to scramble backwards, and even Ethan looked dumfounded.

"Well if it isn't our favorite group of sidekicks," Susy sneered.

"I don't remember inviting you two." Magenta glowered

Zach suddenly leaped into action with an ear piercing battle shriek, charging at the pair, who both instantly disappeared.

From sight, maybe, but definitely not from the room. Magenta suddenly found herself hitting the ground with and oof, and wasted no time in transforming into a guinea pig. It may not have much of a punch, but it was the most powerful one she had.

The room suddenly became ginormous, the couch a towering cliff. Magenta scurried over the plush carpeting towards the coffee table.

Ethan had also transformed, and had managed to slide into Sam.

"Ugh! Dude! Gross!" Sam screeched, trying to brush Ethan off of him, but the orange goop was everywhere, clinging to Sam and making his invisibility completely pointless.

Now that Zach had an opponent he could actually see, he launched himself at the opportunity.

Susy teleported back again, and Magenta attacked with all her furry fury, jumping about six inches and chomping down on Susy's foot.

Susy yelped and teleported away again, but this time Magenta went with her. It was more dizzying than any rollercoaster she'd ever been on before, and Magenta was certain she'd have a headache when she transformed back, but she kept her guinea pig teeth firmly implanted in Susy's shoe.

She opened her eyes, dazed, to see that Susy had teleported to the other side of the couch.

Really, Susy? Really?

Sam was still covered with Ethan, and Zach had joined in too. Susy teleported again, and Magenta felt like throwing up. Sam slapped Zach across the face. Susy teleported again. Magenta was pretty sure her insides were about to become her outsides. Zach slapped Sam. Susy gave up with a grunt and plopped to the floor, attempting to pull Magenta off her foot. Magenta took the opportunity to latch her teeth onto her hand instead, and Susy screamed even louder. Sam and Zach were both slapping at each other, eyes closed and faces turned away.

This was ridiculous. Magenta transformed back into a human and punched Susy in the face.

"Hey!"

"Get out of my house." Magenta said seriously. "And take your brother with you."

Sam wasn't even bothering to stay invisible anymore, focusing on skittering away from Zach.

"Fine," Susy snarled, jumping back to her feet. "This was just a warning anyway."

"Yeah!" Sam shouted, shaking his head like a dog as the last of the goop slurped off of him and Ethan reappeared as a human, standing next to Zach, arms crossed. "Consider yourselves warned!"

"Sam!" Susy snapped, and Sam shuffled over next to her. "We're out now, and you guys are our highest targets. When we come for you, it's not going to be pretty."

"What was this, a practice run?" Magenta asked, folding her arms.

Susy just made a face and teleported away.


	6. Chapter 6

Warren fished around in his pocket for the key, but before he found it, the door swung open of its own accord.

"Hello?" He said, stepping inside. No one could have been stupid enough to break into his apartment, right?

"Hello, Warren."

Warren froze, dropping the bags he had been carrying to the floor. He knew that voice.

"Battle." He growled, his palms instantly igniting. "What are you doing here?"

"Now, now." Battle tsked, stepping forward into the light. "Put those out. I'm here to have a civilized discussion.

Warren didn't listen. "What do you want?"

"I said," Battle repeated. "I want to talk with you, my boy." He tapped his ear with a finger. "Try listening when people talk sometime?"

"Where's Abby?" Had she left before Battle'd gotten here? Or . . .

Battle groaned. "Honestly, Warren, I'll admit it came in handy before, but this is getting just a bit ridiculous, don't you think? How should I know where your girlfriend is?"

Warren finally dropped the fire, storming across the room.

"I just want," Battle carefully continued. "To have a nice, father-son discussion with you."

"I think you should get out."

"I think you'd be interested in hearing this." Battle called out. "I have a proposition for you."

"I'm not interested in any of your propositions." Warren snarled. "I'm a hero now, dad. You remember what that's like? And I'm not going anywhere."

"That's precisely why I think we need to have this little chat." Battle said, seating himself in a chair. "You seem to know, be friendly with, quite a few heroes. And, as you may be aware, heroes and villains don't exactly get along."

Warren crossed his arms, glaring at his dad's condescension.

"In fact," Battle shrugged, "They may even kill one another occasionally."

"Is that a threat?" He deadpanned.

"The opposite." Battle turned serious. "I don't want to fight you Warren. And while I may not understand your friendships, I don't want my war to hurt you. So I'm here to offer you a few safeties."

Warren stared warily. "Safeties?"

"Yes." Battle confirmed. "A few people, whom I'll ensure that not I, nor any other villain, will touch."

"Everybody. I don't want you hurting anyone."

"I said a few, Warren." Battle said testily. "Remember what I said about listening?"

"Remember what I said about being a hero?" Warren countered. "I'm not going to stand here and pick who you can and can't kill."

"Warren, people are going to die." Battle told him. "That's just a fact. I don't think you realize the opportunity I'm giving you. It's a chance to save some lives – your friends' lives. You have the ability to keep them out of harm's way."

"My job is to keep everyone out of harm's way." Warren informed him. "Safe from people like you."

Battle nodded. "Fair enough." He said. "So why turn it down when I'm just trying to make your job a whole lot easier? Let you have a few people you won't have to worry about protecting."

"What," Warren said, eyeing him. "I'm just supposed to take your word for it? Trust you?"

"Fine." Battle said, standing up. "Just trying to do you a favor. But right now, all your friends are fair game, Warren. Remember that. They're the targets, and we're not going to hesitate to hit them."

Warren stared after him. "Wait."

Battle turned.

"You're serious?" Warren questioned him.

"You're my son, like it or not." Battle said, extending his hands. It's the least I can do."

"How many people can I keep safe?"

Battle considered, "A reasonable number."

"Sky High."

Battle shook his head. "Too many. Names, Warren, names."

"Fine." Warren paused for a second.

"Abby. Layla. Will. Ethan. Magenta. Zach."

"That's enough," Battle cut him off as he paused. "Any more, and we won't be able to keep them all straight."

"One more." Warren insisted. "Mom."

Battle gave him a scathing look. "You didn't need to include her on your list."

"Just checking." Warren said remorselessly.

"Then it's done." Battle said, bringing his hands together. "Abby, Layla, Ethan, Magenta, and Zach. I'll make sure they stay safe."

"You forgot one."

"Ah, did I?" Battle asked. "Oh yes. Will. That wouldn't, by any chance, be Will Stronghold, would it?"

"Yes, it would." Warren said. "You know that."

"I'm afraid Will Stronghold is non-negotiable."

Warren's stare hardened. "Yes." He agreed. "He is non-negotiable. I'm not going to let you hurt him."

"Sorry Warren, this one isn't up for discussion."

"Dad." Warren said solemnly. "I'm serious. If there's one person I have to keep safe, it's Will Stronghold."

"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice here Warren." Battle said remorselessly. "Will is off the table. There is no bargaining. You can either keep nobody safe, or those other friends of yours safe. Either way, Will Stronghold remains a target. You can't save him."

Warren was silent for a long moment. "Fine." He said at last. "You're wrong, but I'm through debating that with you. But you won't hurt the others?"

"Cross my heart and hope to die." Battle said airily. Warren glared, and Battle sighed. "Yes, yes. I was the one who brought it up, remember? Of course, you'll have to see to it that they stay out of our way too."

"What?" Warren asked. "That wasn't part of the deal."

"Well, we certainly won't be killing them, or going out of our way to attack them. But if they get between us and our goal, they're going to get hurt."

"They're all heroes." Warren said. "It's their job to stop you."

"Then make sure they get jobs stopping _other _villains." Battle suggested. "Don't be too concerned, if you can't manage it, we'll only restrain them, knock them out, you know, nothing too serious."

"Of course not." Warren sarcastically conceded.

"You don't have a thing to worry about," Battle assured him. "My word is good. I promise."

Warren nodded sullenly, and shrugged. "Not like I have anything to lose."

"Now that's the spirit!" Battle proclaimed gaily. "Well, I must be going, things to destroy, you know, and don't you worry, I'll pass along the no-hit list straight away."

Warren nodded, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Give my best to your mother," Battle continued, striding towards the door. He paused with his hand on the doorknob. "Oh, and you might want to look in the closet. Cheers!" and he disappeared.

Warren just stared at the closed door for a second. That had to have been one of the weirdest visits ever. They seemed to run in his family.

Oh well. For once, he hadn't been left traumatized. For once, some good might have actually come out of it. He still could barely believe it. But who knew? Maybe it would actually work. Maybe, for once, having a super-villain dad would turn out to be an advantage.

And the closet, Warren thought, walking over to it. What on earth had his dad left him?

He pulled open the door, and Abby came tumbling out, hair tangled in her eyes and legs akimbo. He stared down in shock.

"Warren." She said wearily, looking up. "There you are."

"Abby?" Warren said, eyebrows furrowed together as he bent down to her level, helping her to her feet. "What happened?"

She wobbled slightly, and quickly brought her hands to her head. "Your dad." She said simply.

Warren grimaced. "Where the hell did he get power inhibitors?" He wondered aloud, working to get the metal off her wrists. "What happened?"

Abby sighed. "Well," she explained, sinking onto the bed. "He came to the door. We fought. I lost."

Warren's face remained emotionless. "You put up a good fight?"

Abby shrugged. "You know how fire and ice don't mix?" Warren nodded. "Well, it turns out water and electricity really don't mix."

"You'll never believe what happened to us last night." Magenta said, slamming Will's locker shut.

* * *

Will blithely opened it again, looking over at her, Zach, and Ethan. "Whatever it is, I _know _my news tops it."

"Susy and Sam are back." Ethan said solemnly as Magenta nodded with crossed arms. "They paid us a visit yesterday – it was rather violent." Zach had a bit of a harder time with the serious expression, his mouth was hanging open and eyes were wide with sustained disbelief.

"So is Royal Pain." Will matched. "She attacked us last night."

"What?" Zach exploded. Ethan and Magenta appeared shocked as well, but they took it in stride.

"On the same night – it seems unlikely that's a coincidence." Ethan said.

"I doubt it too." Will agreed.

"Do you think they're working together?"

"I wouldn't put it past them."

"Royal Pain gathered up minions last time, remember?"

"You told them?" Layla asked, reading their expressions as she walked up.

"Yeah." Will said. "And they have news too."

"Susy and Sam attacked us last night." Ethan informed her.

Layla's mouth hardened as she shook her head. "I thought we might be in for some trouble like this at first, when there was the prison break. But why now, and all at once?"

Ethan shrugged, eyes wide.

"You reported yours, right?"

"Of course." Magenta answered.

"What? Reported it?" Zach asked.

"We did." Ethan reassured.

The bell cut their discussion short as they each slinked back to their respective classes, but it didn't stop the subject from weighing over Will's head. It just didn't make sense. Why? Why now? Why them? Why this way? He wasn't even paying attention to class and his head hurt.

"Guys, this is pretty serious." Will said, settling down at their table for lunch.

"I'll say." Magenta crossed her arms, tilting her chair back. "It was bad enough having all those villains want to kill us once – now they're back, and doing it again – all at the same time? Not cool."

"They're clearly out for revenge." Ethan said. "So what are we gonna do about it? They're not just gonna give up after that one try."

Will paused. "We might need help."

"We already reported it," Layla started. "That's the only way they'll give us help."

"Yeah, and the super system has always been _so _good about following up on this stuff." Magenta said sarcastically. "Especially when it comes to Battle."

"Well if you don't think we can rely on the actual supers, whose actual jobs these are –"

"Do you really think they were all that helpful when Battle first got loose?"

"Well – no." Layla conceded. "But then who are we supposed to go to for help?"

"Well, what I was kind of thinking," said Will slowly. "We have a pretty good track record. And so does Sky High, really. So maybe we should just let the other students at Sky High know."

They were quiet for a minute, then Ethan lifted a shoulder and dipped it again. "It couldn't hurt to try."

"There's only one problem with that." Magenta said slowly, staring straight ahead. "Sky High is pretty much the only super school. So even though it's a school for heroes, it's also a school for villains." She slowed to turn and face the rest of them. "I mean, it happened with Royal Pain, we all remember. If we go around telling everybody, how do we know half of the student body won't decide they'd rather run off and join Battle instead of fighting against him."

"I mean," Layla said slowly. "Penny and Lash and Speed have been better now that they're back."

"Yeah," Zach piped up. "They haven't given me a swirlie in, like, forever."

"Probably because they have easier meat to pick on now." Magenta muttered, but didn't make any stronger objections.

"Sure, everyone here might not be," Will searched for the right word, "Morally straight. But they're all powerful. And they all should have a common motive – protecting their families, their friends, and Sky High."

"Should," Layla pointed out. "They might not all see it the same way as us. After all, probably none of them were threatened last night."

"That's true," Will said. "But if we could convince them to support us, all of them? We might actually have a chance."

* * *

Some days, it just wasn't any fun to be the good guy, doing the right thing. This was one of those times.

Warren shifted form foot to foot, warily watching his back and wondering why it took supers so long to open the damn door. And half hoping they wouldn't be home. It would sure make his life a lot easier to not have to deliver this news.

But a few seconds later, the door was thrown open by Mrs. Stronghold, smiling as if she were auditioning for a toothpaste commercial.

"Warren!" She cried out. "So good to see you! Come in, come in!"

"Thanks." Warren said, shuffling inside.

"Will's not here right now," She informed him, busily locking the door back up. "Steve! Warren's here! But he'll be back soon. Won't you stay for dinner?"

"No, I can't." Warren shook his head. "I just came to talk to you, actually. About,"

"Warren!" Mr. Stronghold boomed, clapping him heartily on the shoulder. "Out saving the world now, I see. Fine thing, fine thing indeed."

"Yes sir." Warren replied, taking a small step away from him, trying not to think of the bruising that had undoubtedly occurred.

"Will's not here right now." Mr. Stronghold told him conspiratorially.

"I know." Warren nodded. "I wanted to talk to you though."

"Well, go ahead Warren." Mrs. Stronghold said. "We're all ears to whatever you have to say."

Mr. Stronghold laughed. "Yes, spit it out Warren."

"Barren Battle has the Stronghold family targeted." Warren said seriously. The Stronghold's smiles stayed firmly in place, but lost their lightness. "I know you're seasoned heroes, and have defeated him already. But Will hasn't. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of his danger, and had safety measures to protect him."

A beat or two passed in silence.

"Will's a Stronghold!" Mr. Stronghold blustered. "He can take whatever villain the world throws at him!"

"I'm not trying to undermine Will's abilities," Warren said firmly, "We all know he's very powerful. But so is Barren Battle, and he has a lot more experience."

"Targeted?" Mrs. Stronghold said abruptly, swinging off her glasses. "What do you mean, targeted? Are nuclear weapons involved?"

"Uh, I don't think so ma'am." Warren responded. "Though I can't say for sure."

"Our house is the safest place in the country." Mr. Stronghold insisted. "In the world!"

"I understand," Warren persisted. "But Will doesn't spend all of his time at home."

"Is the threat imminent?" Mrs. Stronghold shot out her next question. "Does Will need to be relocated? Have his identity changed?"

"Um, I don't know." Warren stammered. "That might be a bit extreme, or, that is, I'm not sure if it would necessarily stop Battle." She nodded briskly.

"Honey," Mr. Stronghold said, staring at her. "Why would we do that? Will's a _Stronghold. _He needs to stay with the Strongholds, as a Stronghold, in the Stronghold house!"

"Steve, I am not going to take my son's safety lightly."

"I don't know if the danger's any greater than when Battle originally broke out of prison." Warren said. "But I needed to make sure you knew that Will is a target. And he should be careful."

"It's an uphill battle." Mrs. Stronghold said, pursing her lips.

"He's just a teenager, he's supposed to take risks, make a few mistakes! That's what this time is for!" Mr. Stronghold protested.

"Thank you for the warning, Warren." Mrs. Stronghold said. "We appreciate it."

Warren nodded. "We all just want to make sure Will is safe."


	7. Chapter 7

"Thanks for helping me out with this stuff, Layla." Will said, neatly placing the papers inside the cover of his textbook before gleefully shoving it to the floor. "I don't think I'll ever get the hang of statistics."

"It was helpful for me too." Layla said, grinning. "I –"

Will's phone was buzzing, again. He picked it up, glancing at it, and Layla quieted, putting her pens back in her bag. Will turned his phone off, throwing it away with the textbook, and Layla started to get up.

"So, uh, maybe," Will said, "Do you want to stay and watch some tv?" He looked up at her, hesitantly, hopefully.

Layla froze. She had more homework today. It was getting late. Tv wasn't environmentally friendly. She's promised to help her mom with some reorganizing. She had an extra credit project due tomorrow. She had to feed her cat. Her cousin from Mongolia was supposed to call her in half an hour.

She had to wash her hair.

She was pathetic, what was she doing?

"Sure." Layla sat back down, carefully crossing her legs. She smiled back. "I'd like that."

And that was the truth. Maybe that was the problem. She liked this, hanging out with Will. Too much. You weren't supposed to like being with your ex so much.

But that was exactly what made all this so complicated. Will was her ex, most definitely. But he was also her study buddy, her classmate, and, above all, her best friend. How on earth was she expected to deal with all of that in one person?

"Cool!" Will exclaimed, launching off his bed and practically flying out the door and curving down the stairs, heading for the den and the remote. "I think American Ninja Warrior is coming back on tonight!" He shouted gleefully behind him. Layla stood up, stupidly smiling after him.

* * *

"I don't understand." Royal Pain said testily. "Why are the high schoolers suddenly 'off limits'?"

"I thought I made it fairly clear," Battle said, feet up on his desk as he concentrated on making his yoyo 'walk the dog'. He'd been pretty good at these tricks, once upon a time.

"You rat bastard!" Susy exploded.

"Actually," Battle said calmly. "Rat Bastard is still rotting away in a former Soviet prison. Perhaps I should have broken him out instead."

"You're serious?" Susy spat out incredulously. "That little scouting mission was our only chance against them?"

"Pretty much." He replied casually, not bothering to make eye contact.

"If I'd known that, I would've throttled the little rodents when I made the chance!" She steamed, hands clenching around imaginary throats.

"Perhaps you missed the bulletin while you were in solitary," Royal Pain intoned.

"Solitary!" Stiches echoed, cackling about her heels.

"But we are villains. Supervillains. Since when are there limits on who we can and can't attack? The whole point in being a villain is being able to attack your enemies, strike fear into those who have wronged you!"

"Since a few minutes ago, when I told you."

Pain frowned, lowering her fist. "What I don't understand," She continued in a lower voice. "Is why we are taking our hit list from your estranged, teenage son. The hero." She spat it out like a dirty word.

Battle rose to his feet, the yoyo clattering to the floor as he stared eye to eye into Pain's steely mask. "We are taking this hit list," he said calmly, dangerously, "Because I gave it to you, and I am enforcing it. Because I am the one who broke out of prison, because I am the one who put this team together, because I am the one who gave you all the tools, and because I am the one who broke your sorry hides out of jail."

He looked around the room, slowly making eye contact with every single one before turning back to Pain. "Are you questioning my decisions? Should I have left you where you were, rotting away indefinitely?"

Pain muttered out something that vaguely sounded like a no.

"I don't particularly like question and answer sessions." Battle said, returning to his seat. "I don't think we'll have any more of them in the future."

* * *

"Hey guys," Magenta said casually. "So, you know how we were saying that it would be good if we could have, you know, the whole school united?"

"Yeah." Will answered instantly, and a bit defensively. "I still think it would be a good idea! We need everyone –"

Magenta interrupted. "I think I might know a way."

Will stuttered, stopped in his tracks. "Wha – you do?"

"How?" Ethan inquired curiously.

"Well, a way to possibly get Lash, at least. But, with Lash's support, we could then probably also get Speed and Penny. And if we had all of those three, well, they're like, the top 'villains' of the school. Everyone who's not exactly on the straight and narrow practically worships them. So, basically, we get Lash, it'll lead to everyone else."

"Great." Said Will, leaning in closer so as to not miss a word.

"We could just _ask_ them," Layla said airily, rolling her eyes. The others ignored her and, unsurprised, she continued to pick at her lunch.

"Okay, so I was in the girls bathroom, and I heard some other people talking about Lash and Gracen, and I mean, you know Gracen's totally straight, right?" She didn't wait for their affirmation, which hadn't been coming anyway. "So, they were saying that Gracen's given Lash an ultimatum; that if he doesn't go straight by graduation, then they're done."

Magenta sat back, satisfied. "As if they'd even last that long anyway." She added with a snort, glancing in Zach's direction.

"You were listening to gossip in the girls' bathroom?" Layla inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Magenta stared right back at her. "As if you don't too. And it wasn't like I was participating – you just can't help but overhear."

"There's gossip in the girls' bathroom?" Zach asked, looking mildly interested.

"Okay, back up a second," Will said. "Who's Gracen, again?"

"Lash's girlfriend." Magenta explained patiently.

"You know her Will," Ethan said. "She's in our year. I think her power is changing color – or she's like a human chameleon, or something."

"Nah, I don't think it's that good, she was only a sidekick like us when she got placed. But something like that. Anyway, it's not important." Magenta declared. "Since she's set on becoming a hero, she should be on our side. All we have to do, is talk her into talking Lash into it for us. She obviously has a lot of sway over him, since she's making these kinds of demands, and he's actually considering it."

"He's really that whipped?" Will asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Will!" Layla objected. "A guy doesn't have to be 'whipped' to listen to his girlfriend's opinions! Especially about something like this!"

"I know, I know," Will said backing up. "But seriously. I mean, Warren went to the dark side when Abby totally wasn't into it. And his dad too, his mom was a hero. How much could she really convince him?"

"A lot more than us, at least." Magenta pointed out.

"We should at least try it." Zach said.

"Yeah, you're right." Will said. "It's worth a shot."

* * *

"Warren?" Will asked quizzically, staring at the figure perched on his windowsill.

"Keep it quiet, will you?" he said, swinging himself inside. "I'm undercover. Mind if I switch back to Warren Peace in here?"

"Uh, sure." Will said, pulling the window shut again – very careful not to shatter the glass.

"Thanks." Warren said gruffly, heading for the bathroom.

"Very professional, coming to a friend's house to switch." Will called after him.

Warren's voice came from behind the door; "The textbooks haven't been updated in a while – if you hadn't noticed, there aren't exactly telephone booths on every corner anymore."

Will rolled his eyes, closing the math textbook he had been slaving over shut with a flick. He flopped back down on his bed, and Warren shortly re-emerged.

"Something smells good." He noted, shoving the sunglasses in his pocket. "What's for dinner?"

Will raised an eyebrow. "I dunno – I think it might be chicken." He paused for a moment, looking at him. "You can stay, if you like."

Warren grinned. "Well if you insist." He said, making himself comfortable. "Abby's great, but she can't cook for love or money."

"Sorry dude," Will said as they climbed back up the stairs to his room. He laughed a little, running a hand over his hair. "So, uh, if you didn't remember my parents," he smiled ruefully.

Warren shook his head, sliding into a chair. "They don't want to throw me out of the house anymore, so no worries."

Will groaned, rubbing his face with both hands. "We've gotten past that, at least." He acknowledged. "Now if they just could talk about anything other than all their 'heroics'."

"Yeah, it's obvious your parents can hardly contain themselves when they start to talk about 'The Stronghold Three'."

"Yeah," Will said, stretching a smile across his face. He sighed. "I haven't filled out that form yet." He admitted.

Warren looked at him. "What form?"

"You know." Will said, staring at his shoes, tossing a baseball from one hand to the other. "The one where you can request stuff. Like who you want to work with. When you graduate. As a super."

Warren was silent for a few minutes before he found his voice. "My dad wanted me to go into the 'family business' too." He said quietly. "And it was tough to turn him down. But you have to do what's best for you – you can't let him make decisions, determine your life."

"I know." Will agreed. "You're right. But still, I mean –" He fell short suddenly.

Warren's patience lasted only a few seconds. "What?"

"It's just – no offense man – but I don't want to estrange myself from my dad, I want to stay on speaking terms with them. And I don't know how to make that work."

"Huh." Warren grunted, looking ahead again. "Forgot that things are different in functional families."

Will snorted, shaking his head. "Trust me," He said. "Neither of us have the remotest idea what a functional family is like."

Warren raised an eyebrow. "Really, All-American Boy?"

"Shut up." Will snapped. "That is not me – I'm not turning in to Mr. Boy."

"Yet."

"I'm offended by this."

"Why? He's a nice man."

"You're a liar."

"I'm a super. You're a minor. You ought to talk to me with more respect."

"You took your identity off in my bathroom, remember? Right before you begged dinner off me?"

"I don't recall any of that."

"Funny little memory slip you've got there."

"Or delusions you've got up there." Warren said, ruffling Will's hair as he stood up. "Thanks for all. I'll talk to you later."


	8. Chapter 8

"Doesn't this feel a bit like manipulation?" Ethan asked, his eyebrows drawing together.

Will glanced down at him distractedly. "Naw, dude." He had pulled himself up to peer over the top of one of the bookshelves at the impending encounter. "It's just stepping back and letting the girls handle things." He added wisely.

Layla and Magenta were headed over to a table where a girl with long black hair was sitting, her face buried in a large green book. Those two had drawn the short straws of having to make the proposal. It was Magenta's idea, so she had been the first elected. They had wanted Will to go to, but he had talked his way out of it. When none of his arguments against it had worked, he'd resorted to planting his hands over his ears and droning out everything they said. Immature, but effective. He'd happily volunteer to go into the line of fire to protect his friends – but asking a favor form a girl? That was a bit much to handle. He could now observe from a safe distance whatever happened.

"They're talking!" Zach hissed excitedly, his head stretched around the side of the bookcase.

"Zach!" Ethan whispered agitatedly. "Move back! She'll see you!"

"No she won't," Zach insisted back in a whisper.

Will was trying his best to ignore them, instead wishing he had super hearing so he could tell what was going on. Checking to make sure the librarian wasn't nearby, Will abandoned the book pile, flying upwards slightly to get a better view.

Gracen was nodding. That had to be a good sign. But now Ethan was tugging on his leg, and it was near impossible to pay attention.

"Will!" he hissed. "Get down! The librarian will see you – you know she hates kids using their powers in the library!"

"Sshh!" Will replied, ignoring his warning. "She'll hear you!"

"Dude, what are they saying?"

"I don't know, I can't hear them."

"Is it going badly? Should we run?"

"They're just talking," Ethan insisted, rolling his eyes as he peeked through the bookshelves.

Will suddenly feel to the floor with a thump, pulling Zach down along with him.

"Dude! What was that!" Zach demanded, struggling to get back to his feet.

"Sssh! Mrs. Clarkson looked over here! Pretend we're not here!"

"What are you guys doing on the floor?" Magenta asked flatly, hand on her hip. The girls had emerged at the end of the row and were staring at them skeptically.

"Magenta!" Zach exclaimed, scrambling to his feet. "Will's fault. Will. It was Will."

"Yeah, it was me." Will said, also standing. "So how'd it go? What did she say?"

"She didn't make any promises," Layla said. "But she said she'll talk to him."

"That's awesome!" Will said earnestly. "Really awesome. Perfect. That's all we need."

* * *

"I don't have much time."

That was the first thing out of Abby's mouth as she hurried up to Layla.

Layla nodded, still smiling. "That's okay." She answered. "How are you?"

"Good." The answer came without thought. "You? Should we go in?"

"Sure. I'm good too." Layla said as they walked inside, faces instantly thawing as they stepped into the warmth of the coffee shop.

"What do you want?" Abby asked as they walked up to the counter. "My treat."

"Oh no," Layla protested. "I can –"

"My treat." Abby repeated, and she relented.

A few minutes later they were settled at a table, warm drinks in hand and pastries set in front of them. Layla shrugged out of her coat, carefully laying it over the back of her chair.

"So," Abby started. "What's going on?"

Layla looked across the table, her eyes skittering across from Abby's face over and to the window, staring at the trees bending in the wind, their leaves breaking off and flying away.

Ever since they'd met, Warren had always been her go-to for relationship advice. But now that he and Will were bros, and she had more bad than good to say about Will, it wasn't working out so well.

Over the summer, he'd insisted he wasn't about to get in the middle of their break up. "I'm best friends with both of you." He'd insisted. "I can't take sides."

"We're not even fighting!" Layla'd insisted.

Warren'd simply looked at her skeptically. "If you're not fighting," he said, "how come you've been best friends for ages, but can't even have a normal conversation now?"

He'd had a point, and that had shut that conversation down. But it wasn't so easy to find a new confidant. So she'd turned to the next best thing. If Warren had let any information leak, Layla was fairly certain she'd be able to get Abby to break.

She'd wanted to talk about it, but suddenly, she didn't.

"Oh, nothing much." She insisted instead. "What's been going on with you?"

"College. Work." Abby replied shortly. "Come on. What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"I don't know." Layla said, her face dropping. "I'm sorry, I don't want to waste your time – I just needed a girl talk, you know, just not with someone I saw every day."

"Then that's what I'm here for."

Layla's face broke into a watery smile. "Thank you." She said sincerely. "I know you're really busy, and you probably don't have time to listen to a high school girl's stupid drama, but it's really good to be able to talk to you."

"Of course not." Abby insisted, setting down her drink. "I love talking with you – I'm sorry, I know I'm being snappy – it's not you. So come on, what's going on? Is it boys? It usually is."

"I guess," Layla started. "It's just – I miss Will."

Abby looked at Layla, then back down at her drink. "Has he . . . gone . . . somewhere?"

"No, I mean," Layla sighed. "We've always been so close, and now we just aren't anything anymore, and I don't know if I just miss being such good friends with him, or I miss dating him, but I just miss spending time with him, but I don't know if I want to get back together with him, because there were reasons we broke up, and what if we get back together and it doesn't work again, and what if I just want to be friends, but what if he gets the wrong idea, or what if I lead him on, or what if I'm not, but he thinks I am, and gets mad at me, or what if he doesn't even want to try anymore, or what if it's just too weird even if we are both trying and both want to hang out again – and – and –and." Her face collapsed, and she stated helplessly at Abby, who was looking wide-eyed back at her.

"Just, calm down, first of all." She said, putting on a pulled grin. "You're psyching yourself out."

"I know, I know." Layla moaned, sinking her head into her hands. She sighed to herself "Why do I do this to myself?"

Abby shrugged. "That's what happens when you're into a boy."

"But –"

"I know, I know, sorry." Abby quickly said. "I know you and Will are complicated. But, let's face it, there's something going on, and that's why you're feeling so weird."

"I think it's that I don't know if there's something going on that's making me feel so weird." Layla corrected, tapping her fingers nervously on the table.

"Well, you get to decide that." Abby said, picking apart a bagel. "Do you want there to be something going on or not?"

"I don't know!" Layla wailed pathetically.

Abby quickly took a drink to cover her laugh. "Don't you usually go to Warren for Will issues?"

"Yeah," Layla said ruefully. "But I don't want any of this to get back to Will. And I guess . . . this is more of a problem with _us_, you know?"

"Well," Abby started. "I don't know what Will's feeling. And it sounds like neither do you."

"I never have." Layla moaned.

"But that's not as important as what you're feeling. So you need to figure out that first before you start worrying about Will."

"I like Will," Layla started slowly. "And we're not as close anymore. I miss him. But I'm not sure if it's as a friend or as a boyfriend."

"Well do you want to hook up with him?"

"Wha –" Layla spluttered. "I don't know!"

"Come on, Layla! Objectively, do you find him attractive?"

"Of course I do," Layla answered, "I was in love with him for years, I dated him."

"You can do all that with someone you're not physically attracted to. But, okay then, that's something."

"But," Layla said slowly. "Even if we say I did decide I wanted to get with Will again, should I, even? Try to repeat what already didn't work once?"

Abby finished her sip and flipped her phone over on the table. "You and Will have been friends forever, and honestly, you're probably going to be friends for the rest of your lives. If you want to give it another shot with him, I think you're perfectly entitled to it."

"What if it's just wasting both of our time?"

"If you want it, it's not wasting your time."

Layla sighed. "But, if we actually worked together, wouldn't we have not broken up in the first place?"

Abby looked at Layla, and shrugged. "Maybe sometimes two people have to fall apart to realize how much they need to fall back together."

Layla looked back. "Maybe."

* * *

"So I was talking to Layla and Magenta earlier," Gracen said casually, sitting cross-legged in front of the tv, examining the cards in her hands.

Lash started to snort automatically, then remembered himself. "Oh." He said instead. "What'd you talk about?"

"Well, they're kind of worried." She said, switching the order of two of her cards.

Lash glanced up at the commercial for car insurance splayed across the tv screen. They well should be, a substantial number of super villains had them on their hit list.

Gracen continued, "And they want all of Sky High to be united, in case it ever comes under attack."

Like it has before. When he was attacking it. But she didn't say that, and neither did he. They weren't going to talk about that anymore, not until graduation.

"And they wanted your support." She finished, finally looking at him.

"Huh." Lash said. He set down the ten of spades and diamonds. "That's something new."

Gracen considered his move, carefully going over her own cards again, before lazily tossing down a few of her own.

"So . . . what do you think?"

Lash looked at her, then away, and shrugged. "I don't know." He answered honestly. "What do they mean, 'support'?" He had a sneaking suspicion it meant doing their dirty work for them, since he was already nearly a villain.

Gracen's eyes flicked up to his face. "It's going to come to fighting at some point Lash, it could be anytime now. They want you to be on their side. Or at least not to be working against them."

One of Lash's arms snaked back around the couch to grab his soda. "What do you think?" He asked, focusing on shrinking his arm back.

"You know what I think already." She said quietly.

Lash nodded and took a drink.

"But," she fiddled with her bracelet. "I don't know. I don't think it could hurt you."

Lash nodded, looking at her. "No." He agreed. "Probably not."

It was a step. He could take it back whenever he liked. Claim it was all just a front. Or . . . it could really be a step. A slow, small step. An early declaration.

If they really were sincere. But of course they were. They were the heroes. They didn't know how to deceive.

He looked back at Gracen, waiting for her to look up at him again. "Yeah." He said, making his next move. "Sure. I'll talk to him."

Her eyes met his, and she smiled. He did too.


	9. Chapter 9

Will'd been able to hear the house as soon as he turned down the street, so naturally it was so loud that he had no idea what anyone was saying to him as he stepped inside. Instead of responding he just smiled real big, nodded, slapped a couple people on the back – whoops, that one a bit too hard. Will helped him up and shouted an apology he was certain the guy couldn't hear, but he nodded and smiled anyway, saying something back.

He'd known the senior hero parties were crazy. He'd even gotten a taste of it way back in freshman year with Gwen. Of course, there weren't technically heroes anymore, but there was still the clique of popular kids with awesome powers that seemed to form every year. And damn. Every year, they always seemed to know how to party.

Will grabbed a beer and scanned the room. He knew this wasn't Zach's crowd, or Magenta or Ethan's. Layla though. Layla would have been invited.

In his search for a redhead, he inadvertently spotted another. Larry'd just walked into the room from the kitchen. True, Larry wasn't Will's favorite person, but he was a familiar face and fundamentally a nice guy, so Will headed over to say hi.

"Larry!" Will grabbed his hand.

"Will!"

"Surprised you haven't pulled out the rock man yet," Will laughed.

Larry smiled in return. "I'm biding my time, working the room, you know."

"Dude, I wish I did." Will leaned against the doorframe and took another drink.

"Since when does a Stronghold get to complain about his powers?" Larry asked, punching him in the shoulder, grinning. Will smiled too and laughed. He hadn't felt a thing.

"So, uh," Will said. "You seen Layla around?"

Larry shook his head. Will stifled a sigh. "No man. Haven't seen her. Is she coming?"

"Probably not." Will admitted.

Honestly, it wasn't really his scene either. It never had been, no matter how many times he had tried it. But he would have gone through much worse for the chance of seeing Layla.

She was better than him, better than this, better than hanging around in some junior hero's living room clutching half empty beer cans. Instead now Will was stuck with Larry and the other supers for the night.

He rolled his shoulders, preparing himself to get psyched up. It wasn't even really worth wasting his energy on these parties, but he'd already committed. If he put up a good enough show, maybe he'd actually start to have a good time for real.

* * *

"No, no, no!" Battle shouted, throwing his hands up into the air. "That's ridiculous! I can't terrorize the entire world if I have to worry about a leak in my spacesuit!"

"Well," The engineer stuttered, "The probability, as you can see, with this new technology – vastly improved over previous years – as I was, as I was saying, the probability of a, a leak, is very, quite low. Quite low."

"Why is he here?" Battle demanded. "Why did you bring me him? I want to talk to someone who knows what they're doing!"

"He's supposed to be the best," Sam spoke up from the side.

"He's the best?" Battle asked incredulously. Sam nodded. The engineer pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"Fine." Battle said, putting a pair of glasses on himself and pulling the blueprints back towards him. "But I'm not wearing a spacesuit. And where's the tractor beam?"

"T-tractor beam?" The engineer nervously repeated.

"Yes, the tractor beam!" Battle snapped. "I need a way to bring things up into my spaceship!"

"I – I didn't plan for a tractor beam, sir."

Battle whirled back up again. "All I wanted," he moaned. "Was a spaceship. Was that too much to ask?"

* * *

"Well?" Lash said, pushing himself off of the wall as he saw them approaching. "Come on, make it quick. It's not good for my street cred to be seen talking to you guys."

"Yeah, yeah." Will said, crossing his arms. Strangely, he wasn't afraid of Lash anymore.

"Yeah!" Zach echoed, obviously having overcome his fear as well. "We'll show you street cred!"

Thankfully, Magenta stomped on Zach's foot. Now he was annoyed, but that was better than Lash getting annoyed and leaving.

"We'll make it short." Layla stated. "We want your help."

Lash grinned. "My help?"

"Yes." Will took over. "We want you on our side."

Lash's eyes narrowed, and his lanky arms crossed. "Why do you need my help all of a sudden?" He inquired shrewdly. "You're the dream team, right? What do you need me for?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Magenta said flatly. "We need all of Sky High's support, and unfortunately, you're part of it."

"All of Sky High?" Lash raised an eyebrow. "Good luck with that. Maybe you guys haven't noticed, but even though Sky High's a school for heroes, it raises quite a few villains too."

"That's what we need you for." Layla explained. "You're the, well, less-hero inclined students' hero. If you support us, so will they."

Lash just stared for a second. "So," He said slowly. "You're saying you want me to singly-handedly convert all the juvenile delinquents of the school? Yeah right."

"Of course not." Ethan said. "We don't need you to do any persuading. We just need you, Lash, and Penny to support us, and to show it. Then the rest will follow suit."

"I think you overestimate my devoted fans."

"Maybe," Magenta said. "But what do you have to lose?"

Lash shrugged. "Nothing. Fine. I'll stand with you in whatever little hero thing you're doing."

"Great." Will said, trying to stay cool and not show how relieved he was.

"What about Speed and Penny?" Layla asked.

"What about them?"

"Can you get them to join us too?"

Lash scowled. "I don't think so."

"Why not?" Layla asked. "Are you guys friends?"

Lash scoffed. "Speed and Penny hate each others' guts. Even if I did somehow talk one into joining, then the other definitely wouldn't."

"Well, then how did Royal Pain get them both on her side?" Magenta asked.

Lash threw up his hands. "How should I know? Why don't you ask her?"

* * *

"Egypt?"

It was the tinge in her voice that made Warren look up. Normally, he couldn't care less who Abby was talking to or what she said to them. Unlike him, she had a wide social circle, one that seemed to be entirely comprised of people who like to call and chat, or text and chat, or skype and chat. He had no idea how she kept up with all the chatting her social life seemed to require, and honestly didn't care – he just tuned it all out.

But the tinge. It was the same tinge he heard in her voice when he came back with Chinese because the Greek place had been swarmed. The same tinge that had surfaced when her mother had suggested she keep her new profession under wraps from the rest of the family. A tinge that had appeared when leaving the office after that mission.

She was looking at the window, touching up her lipgloss from her reflection with one hand, the other holding the phone closer to her ear.

"So, feeling the heat yet Mia?"

Her voice was light, but the tinge was unmistakable. Warren dropped his head back down – he was no amateur eavesdropper.

"Of course . . . it sounds beautiful."

Egypt sounded like a hellhole to Warren. There was plenty of evil for him to fight right here in America, why would he want to be sent to another country? But, he guessed he could see its appeal for Abby.

"No way, that's too funny. I can just imagine his face. Well, at least you guys will come back knowing some Arabic – those are the words you really need to know anyway!"

Damn, she spoke Arabic too, didn't she? Or was it Farsi? The tinge must be her way of turning green with jealousy. What the hell was Mia's problem, anyway, shoving it in her face? Warren would never understand these stupid girl friendships.

"I don't know, Ellie has always been a jewelry girl. But it sounds amazing, I'm sure she'll love it. You're gonna show the rest of us up now though!"

Of course, you had to actually be successful to get a station like that, to actually be purposefully sent somewhere to handle something, not just be the only ones there and available. Which was all he and Abby were getting, if that.

"Just get the mission done quick, then take a long time wrapping up the loose ends. That's the way to go – take your time with the paperwork, taking plenty of breaks to see the pyramids, the museums . . ."

At this rate, it would be ages before they got a foreign placement. He knew Abby was craving them. Realistically though, at the rate they were going, Warren'd appreciate any mission that had even minor significance. He just wanted to be doing something useful, anything that made him feel like an actual super.

"We'll have to throw a party when you get back, clearly."

Not here they wouldn't.

"I know. You're gonna be way tan and gorgeous, it's not fair."

If that was all Abby was really jealous of, Warren'd eat his own shoes.

"All of our conversations are gonna be illegal soon, swapping all our top-secret, classified stories."

She was stretching the truth, Warren knew full well she didn't have any exciting mission stories to trade. He didn't either.

It was his fault. He knew. They were already branded, what with him being half-Battle, and he hadn't exactly had any stellar performances out in the field since graduation. The opposite of that, actually. If Abby had a real partner, one who didn't accidentally set important things on fire, lose his temper with civilians, and screw up on the files, maybe she would have gotten a better placement by now. Maybe she would've been the one in Egypt. He would've only been deluding himself if he pretended the thought hadn't crossed her mind too. He couldn't just be good at snagging the bad guy – he had to be able to handle everything else that went along with being a super too.

Everything else had turned out to be a bitch.

"Love you too. Be safe."

The phone fell away from her ear with an audible sigh, and she tossed it onto the counter, crossing the room and falling face-first onto the bed.

"Warren," She moaned. "I wanna go to Egypt."

"I know, babe." He called back, not looking up.

Did he ever.

* * *

"So what, exactly, did all that accomplish?" King Kamaomao asked again.

"Well, they got it out of their system, now that they're all on the no hit list." Battle said without looking up, twirling a pencil through his fingers.

"I would've put that little hippie in the hospital, if Stronghold hadn't shown up." Royal Pain growled, slamming a fist into her palm.

"Sensing a pattern here," Battle muttered to himself.

"After this stupid hit list thing is over, she won't be so lucky." Susy sneered.

"Oh really," Royal Pain said, sounding as if she was rolling her eyes under her helmet. "And how did your mission go again? Couldn't you two not take on three side kicks on your own?"

"Yo, we tried!" Sam shouted, realizing they were talking about him.

"And that was the best you could do?"

"Well we didn't exactly realize it would be our last shot at them." Susy said, crossing her arms and glaring at Battle's back.

"Maybe we could help you out." Speed suggested. "Get you some inside dirt on them."

"Oh gee, thanks," Susy said, swerving on him. "That's just what I needed."

"Well hey," Speed said throwing up his hands. "You guys were obviously having issues on your own, just thought I'd throw you a bone."

Susy whirled around to him, baring her teeth as though a wolf about to lunge. "You've been held back so much at Sky High you haven't even graduated yet.

"And what," Susy sneered. "Now you think you're going to be an equal part of our alliance?"

The three remained silent, staring back at her with crossed arms from the other side of the room.

Susy crossed her arms too, staring them down. "We all broke out of jail. What did you do, get out early because you were minors, huh juvies?"

"Susy," Royal Pain said wearily, raising a hand. She smiled indulgently at her. "Don't tease my pets."

Susy rolled her eyes, but once again took her seat. Lash, Speed, and Penny looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes.

Lash was no mind reader, but you spend a couple years in prison with some people and you get to know their facial expressions pretty well. He could interpret this one clear as day, because it was the same thing he was feeling.

He wanted to rip Susy's guts out.

This was why villains didn't work in teams. What was he even doing here? They were making it pretty clear that they certainly weren't going to cut him in for part of the reward, if their plan even worked, which he was seriously doubting.

Because he knew the hero side too. Maybe they hadn't accepted him, but they couldn't get rid of him either, not until graduation at least. And they were better prepared. They knew how to work together. And they definitely had a better track record.

It felt like he was only hanging around out of habit. He'd always been the jerk hanging around in the back of the class. This was just where he'd been expected to end up.

Right about now, it wasn't looking too bright over here.


	10. Chapter 10

The paper was always lurking in the back of his mind. Now so more than ever, considering it was due in a week. Decision time was almost here, and Will still hadn't entirely made up his mind.

If he was being honest with himself, he didn't want to turn the paperwork in. It may be his parents' dream to complete The Stronghold Three, but it wasn't his. Spending his first years as a super working as his parents' sidekick honestly sounded like hell to him. Yes, he was a Stronghold. It was a fact he was proud of. But he wanted to make his own name, his own legacy, instead of spending his entire life riding off that of his parents.

So what if he did actually want a partner? Who would he end up with?

He knew who he really wanted, but who he really wanted had a partner and a girlfriend.

"Any chance you'll drop Abby and be partners with me?" He asked Warren lightly, who was whirling around in the simulator in the secret sanctum. It was one of the few places he could throw fireballs without the fire marshal being called.

"Trust me," He panted as he incinerated another pop up thug. "You don't want me as your partner."

Will knew that was completely false, but he also knew that Warren was out of the running. Unfortunately.

Will mentally scanned through the lunchroom. What if it was someone he hardly even knew, just another face that he had passed by day after day without ever really talking to? That might be alright, actually. He got along pretty well with basically everyone. But would he really be able to trust them to have his back? And would he really want to spend all his time with them?

But then what about his friends? Would any of them want to be partners with him? And who did he want to work with?

He knew the obvious answer. No one knew him as well as Layla did, and he would venture to say it went the other way as well. He knew he would be able to work with her – at least, he thought.

"What's it like?" Will asked as he pressed a button, and sent out another alien to attack him. Warren kicked the punching bag out of the way. "Having Abby as your partner?"

"Good." Warren answered shortly, guzzling some water.

"I mean having her as your girlfriend and your partner." Will persisted. "Does it work?"

"Yeah." Warren said. "Why all the questions?"

"Well it's just, I'm gonna have to do all of this soon." Will said, shrugging. "So I was wondering, if being a partner with your girlfriend was a good decision, or if it was something I should stay away from."

"Dude, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you don't have a girlfriend. Don't partner up with anyone imaginary." Warren was struggling not to grin as he set the water bottle back down.

"I was just looking for advice."

Warren's expression remained the same but he stopped laughing as he crushed his cup in his hand and tossed it into a trashcan.

"The good part is, you get to watch her back, keep her safe in the fights." He said, not looking at Will.

Will nodded, looking at him.

"The bad part is you see her get into some pretty bad fights."

* * *

Although Lash has started patronizing the library more this year, it still felt strange to be walking down the even rows simply searching for the book, without another nefarious purpose. It was one of the duller parts of trying to stick to the straight and narrow.

His long legs swiveled around a musty corner – and his eyes bugged out of his head. There were Speed and Penny, lips, arms, legs, and he didn't want to know what all else, passionately pressed up against one another.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Lash shouted. Penny and Speed instantly sprang yards apart. And the librarian promptly kicked the three of them outside.

Banished to the hallway outside the library, Speed and Penny shuffled with guilty eyes, as Lash fumed, arms crossed.

"So, uh," Speed studied his sneakers intently, scuffing them against the tile.

"You guys let me, and everyone else, think you hated each other." Lash snapped.

"Yep." Penny popped, rolling her shoulders back. "So, yeah, we're kind of together now."

"I thought you guys were my friends!"

"We are, man!" Speed instantly affirmed.

"But you've been lying to me all this time?"

Speed's gaze returned to the floor. "It hasn't been that long." He muttered.

"How long has this been going on?" He asked incredulously.

Speed and Penny glanced at each other. Penny shrugged. "We started hooking up a little while after we got out of the big house."

Lash simply gaped. "Why?" He didn't even care if it was rude.

Speed and Penny looked at each other again. "Why not?"

Lash just rubbed his hands over his eyes and into his hair, at a complete loss for words. He wanted to burn the image of Lash and Penny from his mind, but he had a feeling it was seared into his brain.

"It's like I don't even know you guys!"

"Buddy, it's cool."

"But - . . . But, . . . I can't even." Lash just shook his head and walked away, wondering if he shook his head hard enough he could knock the vision of them swapping spit out.

It seemed unlikely.

* * *

Warren shifted uncomfortably in his chair, readjusting his blazer. The office itself wasn't so bad, but it was these clothes which really made him feel out of place. Between the Paper Lantern, college classes, and being a super, he never really had to break out the business wear, ever.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Mr. Battle," She said with a cheery smile as she breezed in. Warren rose and shook her hand, politely, just like he was supposed to, and cautiously sat back down as she settled behind her desk. "So what concern has brought you here today?"

"I want to know why we're not getting assignments." Warren said bluntly. The question had been circling around in his head like a vulture for months. He certainly wasn't about to beat around the bush now. He'd never believed this was all just coincidence.

Her head jerked up, the cheer slipping off her face as her mouth fell to a straight line. He looked steely back at her. "We may not have been the best of our class, but we were at the top. We're one of the strongest pairs that graduated last year. We have the powers, we have the experience, we have the ability. So why aren't we getting the opportunities?"

She was looking down at the papers scattered across the dark desk instead of at Warren as she took off her glasses slowly, inhaling deeply. "Mr. Battle," she began, "Delegating assignments is a very complicated procedure,"

"I know." Warren cut her off. Bureaucracy was a bitch. He'd put up with enough of it just to get into this meeting, he wasn't about to take any more of it as their final answer. "That's why I came here. Since you're the ones who control it, you must understand it."

"As that may be, it remains difficult to tell from the brief descriptions we receive how challenging an assignment may be, which,"

"I think we can all agree that a murdering robot is more dangerous than a cat up a tree."

She folded her hands on the desk and looked him straight in the eye. "Then I'll be straight with you Mr. Battle. No, you have not been getting prime assignments. It's because of you."

He'd suspected it. He'd known it. It was the whole reason he'd come down to this damn office in the first place. But it was still a shock to hear it said out loud.

"Why," he asked, struggling to keep his hands from lighting up, "Because the super world still thinks I'm a villain, not a hero?"

"Regardless of what you are, your father is definitively a full super villain. You're Barren Battle's son."

"I am not my father." Warren stated coldly.

"We are aware. Your record, as you pointed out in no uncertain terms, speaks for itself on that point. You're right, you and Frostbite are one of the most successful new super teams.

"But Barren Battle is escaped. He's at the top of every most wanted list. We can't be giving his son too much responsibility. It won't look good."

"It won't look good." Warren repeated.

"It's not pretty, but it's the truth. That's what you wanted, wasn't it?" She put her glasses back on and picked up a few folders as she stood up. "I think we're done here. If you'll excuse me, Mr. Battle."

* * *

"I didn't turn in the paperwork." Will blurted out.

He'd been mulling over how to say it for days – the deadline had passed over a week ago, and it had only been a matter of time before his parents found out some other way. But every time he'd planned out what to say and when to say it, he'd froze. Surprising even himself seemed to be the only way.

"Oh no, honey." His mother sighed, setting down her fork. "Again? Oh well, we'll make a few calls, see if we can get an extension."

"No." Will said. "The paperwork to give me a dispensation to not go through the random partnership at graduation. I didn't turn it in on purpose."

His parents simply stared at him, as though he had suddenly started spouting German.

"On purpose?" His dad repeated in a bellowing tone.

"Sweetie," His mom put a hand out. "You do realize that without turning in that paperwork, you won't be able to become a team with us after graduation."

"Yes, mom." Will sighed internally. "That's . . . kind of why I didn't turn it in."

"What are you saying?" The commander demanded, swiping his glasses off.

"Mom, dad," Will started, trying to remember what he had recited in front of the bathroom mirror. "I love you, and you're the best supers in the business, but you're my parents –"  
"Damn right!" His dad interrupted. "There are kids that would kill for the opportunity to so much as intern for us! Adults too!"

"I know," Will said, attempting to pacify him, "But I've never worked as a super before,"

"But shouldn't that make it easier?" His mom interjected. "Who better to show you the ropes than us?"

"I need to make a name for myself first." Will insisted. "I have to show that I can be a hero on my own."

"Will." His dad said, standing up. "Ever since you were born, it has been your mother and I's dream that you would one day grow up to join us, completing the Stronghold Three. Are you saying that you don't care about any of that?"

"Of course I do," Will said, "But it's your dream – not mine. And I have to make these decisions for me."

But his father hadn't even stayed to hear the end. At the 'but', he had turned and stormed out of the room. Of course Will'd known he wasn't going to take it easy, but he had hoped. Will turned helplessly, pleadingly, to look at his mom.

"Will," she said sadly. "I don't understand. Why?"

"I couldn't do it mom." He apologized. He couldn't cry. He wasn't going to cry. He was doing the right thing, he didn't even need to apologize. "I wanted to make you guys happy. But it just wasn't right for me."

She nodded slowly. "Your father will come around." She looked out the doorway, avoiding Will. "I will too."

* * *

"It's a little dark," Layla said hesitantly, peering down at her hand that Magenta's head was bent over.

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." Magenta brushed her off, wiping the brush carefully against the edge of the nail polish bottle. "It's gonna look great."

"Okay." Layla agreed with only a hint of uncertainty. "So, have you had any thoughts about partners for next year?"

"Plenty." Magenta said. "None of them too great though. I always thought Ethan was my go to guy, but he screwed me over by deciding to go into research.

"What about you?"

"Yeah." Layla said. "Actually, you."

Magenta's head jerked up. "Me?" she asked, a genuine note of surprise in her voice. "You uh, you want to be partners with me?"

"Well, you know," Layla would have shrugged if Magenta hadn't had her hands pinned to the table. "If you're interested."

"Yeah." Magenta smiled. "Of course I am. I'd rather work with you than any of those other idiots we go to school with."

Layla rolled her eyes despite her smile. "Oh, stop it, you're flattering me."

"You know what I mean."

"Of course I do." Layla admitted. "That's why I want you to be my partner. Being a super would suck if I had to be partners with Peter, or Gerald or someone."

Magenta nodded. "I thought you'd want to be partners with Wonder Boy Will."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Layla shifted her leg under her. "We dated. It could get messy and weird working so closely together."

Magenta shrugged. "Maybe. But a lot of super couples work together, default to that."

"Yeah, married couples. Not teenagers."

Magenta snorted. "Age has nothing to with it. There are plenty of adults without an ounce of maturity, and plenty of teenagers who are more committed than some adults have even been in their lives." But the edge of her mouth quirked upward. "Not gonna pretend I'm not glad you decided against it though."

"Good." Layla smiled back. "Anyway, if' that's your philosophy why aren't you partnering with Zach?"

"Have you met Zach?" Magenta asked, raising an eyebrow. "He is the antithesis of maturity."

"But you guys work well together." Layla pointed out.

"When we're not ripping each others heads off." Magenta countered.

Layla tilted her head. "You are the one doing most of the ripping."

Magenta huffed, rolling her shoulders. "Being a girlfriend doesn't come easily to me." She grinned as her eyes flicked up to meet Layla's. "Lucky for you, being a super does."


	11. Chapter 11

"And then if the polarity is reversed while the beam is in effect, the resulting solid will naturally,"

Will's head bobbed, then jerked back up. He quickly shook his head, willing his eyes to stay open. He didn't mean to fall asleep. Of course, he didn't mean to be bored either, but that was a two-way street, and Dr. Medulla wasn't exactly holding up his end of the bargain there.

"Exactly, very good Karl. Now, moving on to page five hundred and eighty four,"

Why was he stuck in here? Why? He could be useful! He didn't need to know this stuff to know how to beat up bad guys!

He wasn't saying that science wasn't important, but he just wasn't good at it, and was now really the time? They needed him! He could be out there, helping to stop Battle! And Pain! And all those other villains!

But no. Instead he was wasting everyone's time, stuck in here.

The lights flickered out, then came back on – red.

Will's head jerked around, staring at the ceiling. He wasn't asleep – was he? No. This was actually happening. This was no dream.

Dr. Medulla's head rose upwards towards the lights, his expression suddenly incredibly serious.

"Class is dismissed." He droned in his exact same lecture tone, eyes flickering between the faces of his students and the lights that were still gleaming red as his hands whizzed around the laser, reassembling it in instants. "Everybody please go to homeroom, in an orderly fashion." He shouldered the completed laser. "This is not a drill, this is a Code Red. There's no need to panic. Sky High is going into lockdown."

* * *

Abby's leg wouldn't stop jiggling.

Warren kept on getting distracted by it, it was constantly moving in the corner of his line of vision. Why'd he get stuck with someone with restless leg syndrome?

He knew she was nervous. He was nervous too. This was it. Everything was happening now. This was their chance to be heroes, finally.

The Spector was two away from them now. Almost their turn.

"The bank on Finchler Lane!"

The pair zoomed out of the door, and she made a note on her clipboard, gliding over to the next pair.

One more to go. Warren's back straightened of its own accord.

"Backup for the fire-department – rotate between the major stations in Marxville!"

Another pair disappeared instantaneously.

The Spector was right in front of them, looking them up and down, identifying them with the names printed in black and white on her clipboard.

"Monitor Sky High during lockdown!"

Warren's face remained expressionless. So did Abby's. They turned and left the building, heading towards their assignment, just as everyone else had.

But Warren felt as though his heart had been left behind in that room.

Still not heroes. Still babysitting. Still second class.

Abby must hate him.

* * *

"Student three-oh-seven-six-five-four-eight-two-one-five-nine. Accounted for."

Mr. Boy made a little check on his clipboard and took a small step forward.

"Student five-four-nine-eight-five-seven-two-one-three-six. Accounted for."

Another check, another step.

Maybe it was impressive that Mr. Boy knew everyone's student numbers by heart. But at the moment, Will was having trouble finding it anything but pathetic. That that was his great skill, instead of being out there, fighting the villains with everyone else.

It wasn't his fault. He hadn't ordered the lockdown. He hadn't trapped them all in Sky High. He was just as stuck as they were.

There were only two measly months separating Will from all the other teachers that had fled Sky High an hour ago, whizzing off to fight – well, whatever was going on out there. He was completely in the dark.

This was ridiculous. He could be out there, saving lives, but instead he was stuck in here because he didn't have a stupid piece of paper saying he'd graduated yet. He wasn't just some freshman any more, the entire senior class was practically qualified supers already. If it really was a matter of life and death, shouldn't they be using every asset they had? He couldn't stand being stuck here, not when his presence could make a difference, based on a stupid formality.

A set of doors to the gym swung open and a pair of figures strode through. Mr. Boy's head popped up, interrupted from his head count, to greet them.

Will stared, wondering if he was mistaking them. What the hell were they doing here? Had they come to clear up this idiocy, get him out of here and into the fight, where he belonged?

"Ah, you're here." Mr. Boy said gratefully, skidding over to pump both their hands. "Thank goodness. Not that I didn't have it under control, of course."

He turned to the bleachers and shouted "Attention, students!" His high voice cut through the air, but had little effect on calming the rush of chatter engulfing the gym.

"Listen up!" Warren's baritone echoed through the gym, but it seemed like his thunderous glare could be equally credited with silence instantly sweeping the gym. "We're Inferno and Frostbite. We're in charge of Sky High during lockdown. You have any issues, you go to Mr. Boy. He's in charge of you."

Mr. Boy crossed his arms and nodded importantly, although it seemed like all this was equally news to him.

Warren and Abby left the gym as quickly as they came, abandoning Mr. Boy to his checklist once again. But that was fine, as soon as Mr. Boy got to Will's name, he would be out of here. He had an ally on the outside now, it was only a matter of time.

"I'm surprised they put Warren and Abby here," Layla murmured to Magenta in front of him.

"Do you think they're worried Battle might attack Sky High?" Magenta muttered back.

"Maybe. And they're betting he won't target his own son."

Will tuned them out as he leaned past Magenta to tap Zach on the shoulder. He gave a jump, lighting up like a firefly for an instant.

"Hey man, what's up?"

"Hey, Zach. You saw Warren?"

"Uh, dude, I think everyone saw Warren."

"Right." Will rubbed the back of his neck. "As soon as this role call is done, we're need to get out of here and go talk to him."

"Ten-four."

"Cool."

* * *

Sneaking out of the gym had been easy. There were over two thousand students crammed into the gym and only one Mr. Boy. Finding Warren was just as easy, he'd been in the security room, first place Will had checked.

Getting Warren to direct Will to the fight, which was supposed to be the natural progression of all of this, had turned out to be the hard part.

"Please, dude." Will protested, staring imploringly at Warren's back. "Just look away for ten seconds, that's all I'm asking."

"What part of 'I can't' didn't you understand?" Warren asked.

"Look," Will flew around to get in front of Warren and look him in the face. "I'm not trying to be immature, or undermine your authority and goof off or anything. I just want to help. I want to do what I'm good at. Me being locked up here isn't helping anyone."

"You're a student Will." Warren shot him down flatly. "It sucks, okay, believe me I know. You don't think I think I'd be more help out there too? But they told us that Sky High needs to be kept in lockdown, so that's what we're going to do."

"But who's 'they'?" Will persisted in arguing. "Do 'they' really know what they're doing? Do 'they' really have any better idea than we do?"

"'They' are your parents, Will. They're the veteran supers. They're the ones giving me a job. And I don't know, maybe they don't. But that's not the way things work."

"I'm sorry." Will said, lowering his gaze. "But this is important – more important than following orders. The whole world's at stake here."

"Look, I'm glad you're taking stuff seriously, and you might not even be exaggerating here." Warren said. "But sometimes you just have got to trust that those other supers have powers too, and they know what they're doing.

"And look, you know there's a reason they put you under lockdown."

"Me?" Will asked incredulously. "What are you talking about?"

"You, Layla, all of you guys. You've managed to piss off just about every villain in their group. They already tried to take you out once before. Did you really think they were going to send you out into the middle of the battle, already knowing you were a target?"

Will shook his head, insisting "All supers are a target."

"Look Will." Warren snapped. "I don't care if it's stupid or wrong – it probably is – but here's the truth. You think anyone would shed a tear if popsicle over there kicked the can? No. It would be a tragedy, of course, but everyone would be over it within the hour. If the supervillains want to make an impact, they have to kill someone with a name. Like a Stronghold. You die, it's front page headlines. You die, it's a national crisis. You die, it's a crime against humanity. Even among supers, you're different, like it or not."

* * *

Will stalked out of the room, wondering when his friends had suddenly become adults.

"Will?"

He turned his head to Ethan, trying not to scowl. It wasn't Ethan's fault everyone was an idiot. "What?"

"Um . . . it's Lash."

If alarm bells hadn't already been going off in Sky High all day, that would have set them off for Will. "Lash? What? Is he trying to pull down the security systems?"

"No, nothing like that," Ethan said, although he still sounded wary. "He . . he says they need to talk to you. They're waiting in the first floor bathroom."

This wasn't the first standoff Will'd had with Speed and Lash in the boy's bathroom. But he'd thought he'd seen the last of those a long time ago.

"Hey man," Zach said as he approached, wringing his hands nervously in front of the door. "Penny's in there too. Even though it's the boys' room. I don't know why. That's why I'm here. To make sure no boy goes in. Since Penny's in there."

"Cool man." Will clapped him on the shoulder. Penny hanging out in the boys' bathroom was the least of his concerns. "Do you know what they want?"

"No clue." Zach said.

"Alright." Will said. "I guess we'll find out." He pushed open the door. "You guys coming?"

Ethan and Zach glanced at each other, as if they hadn't expected this.

"Yeah." Ethan spoke up first. "Sure. We'll go with you."

"Yeah man!" Zach instantly affirmed. "We've got your back."

Will took a deep breath and pushed the door open. He knew it was a bad idea to betray any weakness when seeking audience with those holding court in the bathroom.

Penny popped her gum loudly as they entered, leaning on one foot against the stall doors with her arms crossed. Lash stared them down from the center of the room and Speed hopped down from the sink to join him.

"Lash. Speed. Penny." Will acknowledged.

"Stronghold." Lash nodded. "Lightbulb. Popsicle."

"What do you want?"

There was a pause as Speed and Lash glanced at each other. Then Penny pushed herself up from the doors and strode to join them. "We want to help you."

Will looked at her suspiciously. "Really. That's a new one."

"So you'd better not turn it down."

"You have to realize, we don't exactly trust you guys, considering all the times you've tried to kill us." Will pointed out equally acidly, crossing his arms. "Why should we now?"

"Maybe it's a mistake to trust us." Penny said. "But it's a mistake the villains made too. We've been to their meetings, we've heard their plans. And we're going to tell you everything."

Will stared at her. "Everything?"

"Every. Thing." Speed emphasized.

Will glanced back over his shoulder. Ethan shrugged.

"Well then," Will said, folding his arms. "You'd better get started."

* * *

"It's all a distraction," Will explained fervently to Layla. "Battle isn't even there, it's just all his flunkies that are attacking the cities. He's in his spaceship. That's his center of command now. They're fighting in the wrong place. He's just going to be able to waltz in and blast apart all the world headquarters while they're out fighting."

"Have you reported this to someone?" Layla asked. "Mr. Boy, or, you know, someone who can tell all the supers this?"

"Warren and Abby called it in, but all they could do was report it in to the main office, and no one's exactly checking the messages there now."

Layla nodded. "We need to go." She said firmly.

Will bobbed his head too. "Do we tell everyone else?"

"What? They all know already," Layla said, gesturing over to Zach and Ethan who were quickly filling Magenta in.

"No, I mean, really everybody else." Will said. "The rest of the school. Or should we just leave on our own."

Layla was quiet for a second, then nodded. "When Royal Pain first attacked the school, we were all just freshmen and no one thought we could do anything. But we were the ones who ended up saving the school. They're all working to become supers too. If they want to help, we shouldn't keep that choice from them."

"Okay." Will said. "You're right. Of course."

"Will." Layla said again. His eyes snapped back to hers. "You need to be the one to tell them."

He'd had a sneaking suspicion this was going to happen, but that didn't stop his stomach from flipping over. "Are you sure?" He ventured. "I mean, shouldn't Warren or Abby, they're the ones technically in charge here,"

"Will," Layla cut him off again. "You're a senior here, and you're one of the most powerful supers. You're a Stronghold. Everybody knows you, everybody respects you. They'll listen to you. Like they won't listen to anybody else. Not Warren, not Mr. Boy, not me." She grinned and tapped his arm lightly. "Time to put that popularity to good use."

* * *

Will rolled his shoulders back and stepped up onto the stage, beaming his Stronghold grin. "Hey everyone," he said, tapping on the microphone briefly. The sound echoed throughout the room. He didn't think he'd ever seen his school this quiet before, all he could see was a sea of faces all concentrated on him.

"You all know what's going on." He started. There was no point in talking down to him. They were all high schoolers, just the same as he was. "The super villains are attacking. They're out there. They're making their move, right now.

"Our parents, our teachers, our friends, they're all out there too. They're fighting them.

"But they're in the wrong place." He glanced up to the back, where standing by the doors were a flash of yellow, orange, purple, black – and Layla. "We're going to go stop them." He said firmly, his voice without a quaver.

"We don't expect any help. This is going to be dangerous. It's a mission that would be difficult for experienced supers to take on. But you're all going to be supers too. If anybody wants to join us, you're welcome to.

"Battle needs to be defeated. Anything that can help us get there could turn the tide of the battle.

"We're the only ones who know where Battle really is. That means we're the only ones who can really help. We need people to go after Battle. We need people to distract his guards, his team, who ever else is with him. We need people to guard Sky High. We need people to find the supers, tell them what's really going on.

"We need your help. I need your help. The world needs you now. Sky High needs you now."

Will fell silent. Nobody moved. He stared out across the sea of faces, and pulled the microphone back to his face, a tiny part of him wishing it were Coach Boomer or Principal Powers standing here instead of him. "You don't have to help us. Like I said, it's going to be dangerous. But if you want to be a hero – now's the time."

From the back of the room, three figures stood up. It wasn't until they spoke that Will knew for sure who they were.

"We're with you." It was Lash, Speed, and Penny.

Will himself hadn't been entirely sure they were going to go with him. Of course they had initiated all of this, but he wouldn'tve been surprised if after their good deed of the year they'd slunk back into the shadows to quietly observe the outcome. Regardless of their motives, it took guts to stand up in front of the entire school and state your opinion.

He was speaking from experience.

"They aren't the only ones."

Larry stood up suddenly, transforming from a pale kid with glasses to an eight foot tall rock monster as soon as his feet hit the floor. "I am too."

"Me too," Came a voice from the back as another girl stood up, and then suddenly it seemed as though the whole school was standing up and Will had no idea what they were saying because they were all speaking at once, but he thought he got the gist. Sky High had his back.

* * *

"You ready for this?" Warren asked, walking up in front of her.

"You go ahead," Abby said. "I'll stay here and guard the school."

Warren's mouth dropped open, and he closed it again. Of all the possible responses she could've given, that had to have been the one he'd least expected. "You . . . want to stay behind?" he asked doubtfully.

"You and I both know that I won't be any help around your dad, he'll just electrocute me as soon as I try to use my powers.

"And I think you guys should go, this is clearly important – but that isn't our mission. Our mission was to guard Sky High. The office isn't going to take us abandoning that lightly, especially with the track record we've had. At least one of us should stay here, maybe it'll make them go easier on us.

"And at any rate, if Sky High really is attacked, we can't have just Mr. Boy guarding it."

"Okay." Warren said.

He was honestly a little glad that she was opting to stay back instead of charging into one of the most dangerous battles to date, but he knew well enough to just go with her arguments instead of tossing that one out there.

"Make sure you keep an eye on the freshmen," he said, his hands pulling her closer. "Sometimes they like to crawl through the air vents . . . battle in the cafeteria . . . defeat supervillains and save the world,"

"Basic ninth grade stuff." She finished, smiling. "You gonna be safe out there?"

"Aren't I always?"

"No."

"Yeah." He said, kissing her lightly on the forehead. "Don't worry about me. I'm coming right back to you."

"Good. I'm holding you to that."

* * *

Magenta never really looked happy, but her crossed arms seemed particularly ticked off right now.

"So you convinced all these kids to help us." She said. "But how are you actually going to get them all to the battle?"

"Heh," Zach snickered. "Battle. Battle. That's punny Magenta."

She ignored him, staring at Will. "How are you even planning on getting the six of us over there? You can fly, but the rest of us are stuck. You can't fly all of us over. What are we supposed to do, take the bus? I kind of doubt public transportation runs on schedule when super villains are attacking the city."

"Well," Will scratched the back of his head, glancing hopefully at Layla, but she didn't say anything.

"Will, you're a great super," Ethan stepped in, "And I think all of us are a great team, but,"

"We don't even know how to get there." Magenta finished. "And we're already going into this blind. I know Penny and them said that the other villains are all a distraction for Battle's real plan, and I'm not saying I don't believe them, but they don't even know what that bigger plan is. They just said he's on a spaceship. We have no idea what we're getting into, what we're supposed to stop him from doing."

"Knowing my dad," Warren said, "Take over the world. Mass murder. Institute tyranny and dictatorship. Textbook stuff."

Magenta rolled her eyes towards him. "Hilarious. I'm just saying, we need a plan."

"I mean, we've never really had one before Maj." Zach said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Magenta's right," Layla said. "Just because we usually don't know what we're doing doesn't mean we should go in blind."

"Maybe we should ask Mr. Boy?" Zach ventured.

Layla raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Boy may not be the best source for this mission."

"You've already called it in?" Will reaffirmed with Warren.

"Yeah. Like five times." He answered. "Every super in the country's been pulled out for this one. They're all busy."

"Well, dude," Will rubbed the back of his neck. "How do you guys usually get to your missions?"

Warren stared at Will, his mouth dropping open slightly. "We walk, Stronghold." He enunciated, as though this should have been obvious.

"Well what are we supposed to do then?"

"Isn't there anyone you can call? Your parents, somebody?"

"No," Will started to answer automatically, then paused. "Wait. There is." He pulled out his wallet, yanked an old, wrinkled business card out from between a few old receipts, and began to dial.

* * *

He yanked a tree up out of the ground, and slugged it at the little green man charging towards him. Sorry Mother Nature, he thought. I'll plant some trees this weekend. Also, thanks.

His footsteps thundered against the ground as he charged towards the next one, slugging a few with his fists before grabbing up a car to use like a bat.

Suddenly a chorus of beeps broke through the shouts and screams of battle. He dropped the car on top of the screeching villain in spandex, and fished his phone out of his pocket, flipping it open and holding it up to his ear.

"Hello. Ron Wilson. Bus Driver."


	12. Chapter 12

"Ron, seriously," Will said, standing by the door. "I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you enough."

"No thanks necessary Will." Ron said, tipping his hat. "You know I'll always be there, no matter what you need."

"I appreciate it. I'm losing track of the number of times you've saved us."

"Well," Ron lifted his hands with a grin. "It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. Speaking of, you have a Battle to get to, and I need to start letting people know they're fighting in the wrong place."

Will nodded. "Bye Ron. Thanks again!" He cried back as he clambered off the bus.

"Bye Will!" He shouted back. "Good luck!" With a shudder, the doors folded shut and the bus shot off back into the sky.

"You ready?" Magenta asked him as he walked back over.

"Always." Will answered, rolling his shoulders back.

"You sure he's in there?" Warren asked in a low voice, his hands lighting up with flames.

"That was their plan." Penny answered. "It should be just him and the spaceship."

"So," Ethan said, "What was your guys part in the plan again?"

Penny shot him a look. "Distract Sky High. Let Battle and the others in when the time came."

"Well you guys didn't do a very good job of that." Zach remarked.

"You complaining Lightbulb?" Speed spat back, but without any real malice behind it.

"Well let's not wait around." Layla said grimly. "Time to go in."

Will had to hand it to Battle: the spaceship was badass. It looked like it had been summoned straight out of a sci-fi movie. As the huge doors rolled up, it was instantly revealed, taking up almost half the space.

"Whoah. Awesome."

"Are you sure this is it?" Magenta asked as they took a step inside.

"Oh, I dunno pipsqueak, maybe some other supervillain in Pennsylvania was also hiding a spaceship in their basement."

"Well it looks deserted."

"Well –"

Two robots burst out of nowhere – maybe from the ceiling? – and slammed into the middle of the floor, the concrete cracking under their weight. Will instantly put his fists up as they turned their glowing eyes onto the group.

"Happy now?" Someone muttered.

Will switched into auto-mode the second they moved. Robots were a piece of cake, their metal was no match for his strength. He'dve felt relatively comfortable taking them on all on his own; with a whole team at his back they didn't stand a chance, even if there were two of them.

His punches landed solid, denting the metal, leaving welts and rivets across their surface. One finally made a good swing at him, and he flew backward, slamming into the concrete. He jumped up again, hardly even fazed, searching for his next opening.

"Will!"

His head snapped around back to Layla. She was growing trees and vines, trying to force the garage doors to stay open, while Magenta was wildly mashing buttons on a control panel, apparently with no effect.

"We can't keep them open!"

"Guys!" Will shouted, flying up to lead the charge. "Forget them! We have to get back into the building!"

A robotic arm lashed out to block his way before he could move, the laser emitting from it shooting straight through his path. A long pair of arms stretched out to wrap around it, and Lash pulled, shouting at it, slowly wrenching it out of the way.

"You guys go ahead!" One of Penny yelled. "We got this!"

"Are you sure?" Will asked, hesitating.

"Yeah, I'm sure!" Penny shouted. She multiplied again, the new clone looking Will in the eyes. "We got your back, Stronghold."

It went against so much of him to leave the battling monster behind, but the others had all already dived through the entrance, and, he suddenly realized, he trusted them to handle this.

With a thud, Will threw himself back into the garage, Layla let her plants shrink back into the ground, and the doors closed with a sharp clang.

The space was eerily quiet with the doors shut. The distant thuds from outside could just as easily have been passing traffic as a mega robot fight.

"Alright," Will said, scanning the room. "Everybody split up, start searching. The spaceship –"

"Good lord," A voice drawled from a corner. Their heads whipped around to see a dark figure striding towards them. "You spend all that money on a security system, and it doesn't even keep half the rats out."

"Battle." Warren stated, his hands flaring up.

"I thought we agreed you were going to tell me before you invited friends over Warren." Battle said, scanning the group.

Will knew better than to give Battle a chance to talk his way out of this, an opportunity to buy himself time and figure out the fastest way to defeat all of them. He leaped up and flew straight across the room, barreling into Battle.

It felt like running into a concrete wall, but Will wasn't super strong for nothing. When he flew up, dropping Battle, he realized he had in fact managed to shove him into an actual concrete wall.

But he wasn't down for long, even with vines, undeniably thanks to Layla, doggedly attempting to bind him.

He'd fought in pairs before. He'd fought against multiple villains at once. He'd fought as part of a team. But he'd never been in anything much like the wild free for all of six supers against one super villain.

Fireballs were flying everywhere, and Will just had to hope that Warren's aim was good enough to not hit him by accident, or to burn Layla's plants for that matter, which were quickly turning this basement into a greenhouse – the type of greenhouse that wanted to kill you.

All of the lights seemed to be coming alive – aside from Zach – and blacks wires were twisting down from the ceiling, curling and bobbing like sparking snakes.

But he had to keep his attention focused on Battle, he was reminded sharply as one of the cords tightened itself around his ankle. With a grab, he yanked and pulled it apart, ripping it from the rest of the cord and wherever it was connected to. But the cord seemed completely unaware it wasn't attached to a power source anymore, continuing to hiss and coil. Will kicked towards Battle's face with it.

The cord stayed put, but Battle went reeling back, crashing into something that made a lot of noise as they hit the floor. Something else attacked Will's leg, and he instinctively jerked trying to kick it off before realizing it was Magenta.

"Hold still, I'm helping!" She squeaked irritably.

"Sorry Maj, didn't know it was you."

"How many other purple guinea pigs do you know?" She asked through a mouthful of wire. She dropped to the ground, half of the cord still clenched between her teeth, and Will's leg was freed.

"Enough." Battle bellowed, grabbing one of his own cords and swinging himself up to the roof of his spaceship.

Will had no idea what his spaceship could do, but they had more than enough trouble just fighting Battle unarmed. If he started using a spaceship, it'd be a blowout.

He charged, flying in a straight shot, and barreled straight into him, not even stopping in his path straight up. Will didn't care about the ceiling, he flew up, shoving Battle with him.

* * *

Layla sighed, her shoulders deflating as she watched Will crash through the ceiling with Battle. They could hear a distant boom with each floor they crashed through.

"Come on!" Layla shouted, charging towards a service elevator on the other side of the room. Hopefully they'd be able to catch up before Will did something else stupid.

They all piled in as Warren's fist smashed into the button for the top floor. "We're lucky Battle didn't disable it," Magenta said, holding Ethan's arm as he sank to the ground, groaning.

"Yeah," Layla agreed, ripping open Zach's backpack and yanking out some bandages.

"He still could," Zach pointed out, his foot jittering as he watched the numbers slowly light up, floor by floor. "We should've taken the stairs."

"That would've taken forever," Warren snapped, grabbing the bandages Zach had been ripping up and passing them to Layla.

"Well this isn't exactly fast either."

"Well we can't all fly Zach, this is the best we've got." Layla said, tying the bandage off. "How's it feel?"

"It'll be fine," Ethan gasped as his face tinged green.

The elevator gave off a soft ding, and the respite was over. The doors slid open, revealing Battle zapping Will across the length of the roof. Layla charged out, the rest right behind her, jumping back into battle.

* * *

Will hadn't intended to shove Battle up to the roof, it'd just kind of happened. In hindsight, maybe hadn't been the best idea – he had some pretty creative moves with the lightening rod.

"Stronghold!" Battle growled. "Yet another one, of course! Always getting in the way! Do you people know how to do anything else!"

"Must run in the family." Will grumbled back, flying out of the way of another lightening strike. He'd failed the witty banter pop quiz in his negotiating with villains class last year.

"Of course." Battle cackled. "Of course it would be you who figured out where the center of operations really was. Strongholds always manage to step right in and save the day – after all my hard work! You really do take after your dad."

"If you mean that we can both beat you in a fight? Then yeah, I hope so."

"Ha! As if you Stronghold's ever play fair! He knew he was stealing it from it, all the way back in high school! That role was mine! I was supposed to be the star of Oklahoma!"

"Wait – what?"

"Oklahoma! You uncultured swine, the musical!"

"Yeah, I got that," Will scowled dodging out of the way again. "Why are we talking about high school musicals? Get your head in the game, Battle."

"A little history could do you good, boy. The first of your father's many injustices! Stealing the lead right out from under my nose!"

"So, what you're saying is," Will said, giving Battle a look he usually reserved for super calculus homework, "You're mad at my dad, and all the Strongholds, because he got the lead role in Oklahoma back in high school instead of you."

Battle snarled "He didn't deserve it! I had the better audition!"

"You're kidding me!" Will shouted, genuinely befuddled, his arms falling to his sides. "You're all still mad over things that happened in high school?"

"They weren't children, we were practically adults," Battle snarled. "They knew very well what they were doing."

"Well, no offense, but that was ages ago for you guys!" Will shot back. "How can you still be upset about it? How can you even remember it?"

"High school can be a cruel time – something I'm sure a Stronghold never had to experience." Battle paced around in a circle, trying to get nearer to Will as he steadily backed in the opposite direction. "Those scars don't fade. Just ask Royal Pain," he said with a wry grin. "She also got a taste of just how cold your parents could be."

"But that was all when you were in high school, years ago!" Will protested. "You can't just keep obsessing over stuff like that!"

"Watch me." Battle raised a hand and lightening struck again.

A one on one with Battle had been what Will was anticipating, but a bit more than he could handle. He felt no small relief when the elevator doors dinged open and the troops burst out.

It became a blur, like save the citizen. He fell into familiar patterns, strategies he had spent hours trying to memorize, ducking and swerving Battle's blows as though on autopilot. He took care of his end, and tried to make sure he stayed out of the way of the fireballs, snapping plants, and flying bits of orange Ethan-goop.

Battle was a supervillian with years of experience on all of them. But he was also heavily outnumbered. And he was beginning to falter.

He noticed it when Battle had the perfect opening, so he ducked to avoid the electric bolt he was sure to be heading his way. Only it never came. Then it was Will who had the perfect opening instead.

He shot towards Battle, knocking him over as they fell head over heels towards the edge of the building, Will punched again, but missed, his fist hitting concrete. They tumbled straight into the ledge separating the ground from the air – Will effortlessly flew up, throwing another punch that hit home, as Battle scrambled, hooking an elbow over the side of the building as his legs dangled over the edge.

His feet scrambled for purchase against the side as Will landed on the rooftop again, breaking away the wires that were scrambling towards them – he'd learned that trick by now.

He knocked one of Battle's arms off, blocked his next punch, threw the AC unit barreling towards them to crash into pieces against the alley below. Will pulled his fist back to crash a final blow – then paused, his brain suddenly clicking out of battle mode. Instead his eyes focused on Warren, standing maybe a hundred yards away. Suddenly he realized as he never had before that Warren's last name may have been Peace, but Battle ran equally strong in his blood. He lowered his hand and took a step back, jerking his head to Warren.

Looking down at Battle, he said "I think you need to talk to your son."


	13. Chapter 13

Warren sighed. No one'd asked him if he wanted to negotiate with his dad. Battle didn't look intimidating at all anymore. It wasn't just the power inhibitors, hanging with a dull glow off of his wrists. He was just sitting there, legs hanging over the edge of the building, staring off into the distance. He just looked rumpled and tired.

Warren walked up next to him and dropped an arm onto the cement, pulling himself down next to him.

"Hey dad."

"Hello Warren."

"What do you think they're talking about?" Zach asked, trying to inch closer to that side of the building.

"Probably deciding which one gets to throw you off the roof." Magenta said, rolling her eyes.

Zach looked mildly alarmed, and Will had to admit that knowing Warren and Battle, that wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

"Hey," Layla said, brushing his sleeve with her hand. He looked over, surprised to see her actually smiling at him. "You did really good today."

Will knew he couldn't take the praise for this, but that didn't stop a smile from spreading fast across his face. "Thanks," he said. "But it's not anywhere near over yet. Battle's not done yet."

"I'm not talking about that," Layla said. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of people thanking you for taking care of Battle.

"I was talking about earlier. About how you stopped yourself in the fight with Battle. How you made sure you had plenty of help before going after him, and you tried to do it the official way first. That you listened to Lash and Speed and Penny, and how you got everyone in Sky High involved." She lifted up a shoulder slightly, her face soft and light despite the bruises and scrapes from their battle. "You're going to be a great super Will." She said frankly.

Those words shot their way straight to Will's very core, and he had the feeling they were going to stick there for a long, long time.

"This has to be it." Warren was saying firmly. "You lost. There's not going to be another battle, another fight. The heroes won. You need to leave it now. You need to be done."

Battle stared at his face, watching as the words spilled out. He looked so much like him, yet those were Carol's words coming out of his mouth.

"This is who I am Warren." He said, rehashing the old argument. "I waited seventeen years in jail for someone to slip up. One lost battle isn't going to stop me."

He was Carol's son. Warren'd made that much evident, again and again. Battle wasn't complaining, he couldn't think of anything better the boy could be. But how was he supposed to argue with that? He'd already had this conversation with Carol, over and over again, years ago, and it always turned out the same.

"Dad," Warren said. "I'm not asking you to become a hero. I don't expect that much from you. I just want you to stop trying to kill me and my friends. Just leave this place alone for a while, go lay low somewhere else. You've got to have enough money to do whatever you wanted. Just give the Stronghold thing up, and we can move on."

The Strongholds. The Strongholds had been a black spot on the corner of his vision ever since high school. They'd systematically ruined his life, taking away everything that was valuable to him. Now they'd even corrupted his own son, countering with a super boy of their own.

"Dad," Warren said. "I'm serious. Are you even listening?"

"Of course," Battle said, his voice gravelly. He believed the Stronghold vendetta would never fade. But now there was another one to contend with, and his grand plan had failed yet again. Maybe the Strongholds could be moved to the backburner. He was a dad. That was something he'd never forgotten, not through all his years of solitary confinement.

He and Carol had declared separate sides, and fighting against her had been one of the biggest regrets of his life. It was the only reason he'd ended up in prison at all. He couldn't repeat that with Warren.

"I'm listening." He repeated.

"Any word from the rest yet?" Ethan asked.

"No," Will said. "But I think my phone's busted anyway." He fished the mangled piece of metal out of his pocket and looked at it forlornly before tossing it away. He had no idea when exactly that'd happened, probably one of the times he'd gotten thrown into a wall. He'd have to get on his dad's plan, that gave out five new cellphones at once.

"Ron knows where we are." Layla said. "They know where to find us."

"You're going to a hospital as soon as we get back buddy." Will said. "I can fly you to one as soon as we get Battle taken care of."

"I'm fine," Ethan assured them once again.

"Maybe you'll get a nice battle scar." Magenta suggested hopefully.

Ethan paled at the thought.

"Where will you go?" Warren asked as he stood up, reaching down a hand to help up Battle.

Battle leaped to his feet on his own, hands still bound behind his back, instead. "If I don't tell you, you won't have to decide whether or not to lie to the police."

Warren nodded once. "Fair point."

"Well," Battle said, jerking his head backwards. "I can't hug you goodbye with these on."

"I guess not." Warren said, but he didn't move.

"Something wrong Warren?"

"Well," Warren said, walking behind his dad, his hand reaching out to hover over the keypad. "Once these are off, what's to stop you from going back on our deal?"

"Warren," Battle said. "I am not an honest man. But I would not go back on my word to you. Understand that.

"Besides," He continued. "You and I both know these bonds are based in electricity. They aren't doing anything to contain me."

"Then why are you still here?"

Battle looked back at him. "Why do you think Warren?" He turned his head forward again. "We made a deal."

"We did." Warren typed in the code, and the cuffs whirred off, closing up into a hunk of plastic.

Battle stretched his arms out and up over his head, giving Warren a wry grin.

"Well, I suppose I'd best be going before the cavalry gets in. Or would you be the cavalry?" Warren's face remained emotionless. Battle continued, "Maybe I'll see you around sometime."

"We'll see." He replied. "Hope they're good terms."

Barren walked lightly to the edge and, giving Warren a wink, swan dived off. Warren rolled his eyes at the dramatics and turned around, to see Will and friends' jaws dropped to the ground.

"Did he just –"

"Relax." Warren said, joining them. "He jumped onto the fire escape. He's fine.

"He's getting his spaceship, then he's out of here."

All of the boys faces fell slightly. "He's taking the spaceship?"

Magenta huffed. "Did you honestly think anyone was going to let you keep it? Or even touch it?"

"Warren," Ethan said. "Did your dad mention how the spaceship got out of the building?"

"I dunno, probably through the huge garage doors right there. Why does it matter?"

"Maybe we should warn Lash and Speed and Penny?"

Everyone's eyes widened at the same time, and Will dashed towards the end of the building, leaping off in the same path as Battle.

* * *

"You know," Zach said, as he surveyed the take down of the crime scene. "You might not believe this, but I wasn't really sure I'd be able to do this when I first came to Sky High."

"No," Will said, "You?"

"Yeah. I mean, obviously, that was ridiculous. Clearly, I'm a natural. We all are."

"Clearly." Will repeated, having less than affirming flashbacks to their first weeks at Sky High. "We've come a long way since then, huh?"

"Absolutely!" Zach said, raising up his hand. "We are awesomeness now! No one wants to come up against us!"

"Yeah," Will agreed, slapping his hand. "We're a great team." He laughed. "I wish I could just be partners with all of you guys after graduation."

Zach laughed too. "Yeah man. I feel you, I feel you."

"We can blame it all on Ethan, ditching the fist fighting."

"Magenta and Layla really got the best end of the deal."

Will had still been looking over at Ethan. "Huh?"

"Well, you know, they got each other as partners at least."

"What? They're going to be partners?"

"Yeah, man. Didn't you know that?"

"No – I assumed you and Magenta were going to be partners."

"No way!" Zach's face cracked into a smile. "Are you kidding? She's ready to murder me every other day. We would never survive it."

"That does actually make a lot of sense." Will said, grinning even as he recalled some of their blow out fights. "So, uh, who are you gonna be partners with then?"

"Ah, you know," Zach said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Dunno really, just kind of, playing the field right now, you know?"

"Yeah." He'd been using exactly the same lines himself when people asked him.

It meant he had no idea what he was going to do. Hoping Warren would suddenly drop Abby to be partners with him. Hoping for the best from a random assignment.

"Well," He said slowly. "If you don't have a plan for a partner . . . and I don't either,"

"You don't either?"

"Nah. But maybe – well," He shrugged. "Maybe you wanna be partners?"

"For real?" Zach's face split open with a smile.

"Do you wanna?"

"Yeah, man, of course!" Zach shouted. "That'd be awesome!"

"Great!" Will exclaimed, feeling certain that his smile could actually rival Zach's for brightness.

Zach raised his had for a high five. "Wicked." He cringed as Will slapped his hand, cradling his palm against his chest. "Whoah there. Maybe we'd better lay down some ground rules."

"Sorry." Will said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it dude. We'll get a new super secret partner handshake."


	14. Chapter 14

**So, this is it. Thank you so, so much to everyone who's read and reviewed, you make my day. Hope you like it!**

* * *

Warren raised an eyebrow as Will slid into what had become their usual table at the Paper Lantern. "Don't you have something called school? I hear it's mandatory."

"One," Will raised a finger. "It's three thirty. School's over. And two, it's May, school's practically over anyway."

"Fine." Warren said, setting his tray down after a quick glance around for his boss and sitting across from him. "How was prom?"

"A little anti-climactic after everything else."

"You get up the guts to ask Layla?"

"We went in the same group."

"So no then."

"It's complicated." Warren just stared back at him, not buying a word of it. "How'd it go after we left? Did they buy that Battle just got away?" Will asked.

"Yeah." Warren answered, shoving his hands into his pockets. "They don't really know you guys, what you're capable of. They've never seen you in action. So they aren't surprised that he beat a bunch of teenagers, and just left them unharmed. And me and Abby aren't exactly the A team."

"That's cause that's me."

Warren rolled his eyes as Will smirked. "Whatever. Anyway, it worked out in our favor for once since they didn't ask any questions."

"So," Will asked. "Have you?"

"Have I what?"

"Heard from him at all."

"Nah." Warren shook his head. "I think my mom has. But I think we need a little space for now."

"That's cool."

The edge of Warren's mouth quirked up. "You of all people should know my family is anything but cool."

"Ha. Ha. Haha. Ha. Are you sure your second power isn't making terrible jokes?"

"That was weak."

"Compared to me, everything is weak."

Warren rolled his eyes, not laughing, but letting it slide without a comment. "So are you gonna get me tickets for graduation?"

Will raised an eyebrow. "You want to go? You know you can just show up to the party, right?"

Warren shrugged. "I'm bored. Desperate."

"Alright. You know a normal person would like go to the movies or something."

"God. No movies. Every time it's Abby's turn to pick – every time – she picks Frozen."

Will laughed. "Yeah, I've seen it," he shrugged, "Can see why she'd be into it."

"Every. Time." Warren repeated. "She is obsessed. I have it memorized."

Will just laughed even more, and Warren scowled at him.

"Shut up. I'm starting to forget why I wanted to go to your graduation at all."

Will squinted at him. "Layla told you you should go, didn't she."

"Yeah." He didn't bother trying to hide or deny it.

"Why don't you ask her for tickets?"

"You've got better seats."

Will dipped his head. "Being a Stronghold does have its benefits."

"You've just got the in with Mr. Boy."

"Hey, what can I say, I'm loveable."

Warren rolled his eyes. " You're going to be insufferable once they give you your own comic book."

* * *

"YEEEAAAHH BOOIIII!"

It was only Will's super strength that stopped him from being wiped out to the ground as the ball of light tackled him from behind.

"You and me! Zach Attack and the Captain!"

"I know!" He shouted back, hooking an arm around Zach's neck. It's going to be awesome.

Magenta walked up behind them, her smile surprisingly glowing almost as bright as Zach.

"Are you guys done? Layla wants pictures."

"She's not the only one." Will's mom joined in the hug. "I'm so proud of you baby."

"Thanks mom."

"That's a good one!" His dad boomed as the camera snapped with a flash. "Alright now, howabout one with the future partners now, eh?"

They obligingly huddled next to each other as Will's mom backed away, grinning. Will tried to mirror the grin, sure he was being outshone by Zach.

The camera clicked again, and Will's dad glanced down at the picture, his forehead creasing a bit. "Alright, one more time, without the flash." He said, raising the camera again. "Zach son, think you could tone down the light a bit?"

"Sure thing Commander!" Zach replied, although Will didn't notice much of a difference.

"Oh yes, this is going to be one for the scrapbook." Will's dad nodded at the picture. "We've got some real nice ones, that someone or other gave to us,"

"Mr. Boy, dad."

"You know I think you're right, where is the old bugger, we should get a picture with him too."

"Congratulations Willie," Mr. Halfside said, pumping his hand as Will's dad patted Zach on the back, nearly knocking him to the ground.

"Fine job son, fine job!"

"Can I get one with you and Layla honey?" Will's mom asked. "I have a picture of you two from the first grade. Oh, it's going to make me cry."

"Uh, yeah, sure mom." Will said, glancing over to check with Layla.

"Of course Mrs. Stronghold." Layla said with a wide smile.

Will hesitantly put his arm around her as they posed.

"Do you want me to take one with you guys?" Layla asked after the camera clicked.

"Oh, would you Layla! Oh you are such a dear, thank you! Just press this button right here, that one, you have to hold it," Will's mom instructed as she rushed over to stand beside Will. He was starting to feel mildly like a cardboard cut out.

It didn't quite seem real. Yesterday he'd still technically been in high school, now he could officially be called out on missions. For such a big transformation, you'd think he'd feel a little different. But being handed a diploma hadn't magically given him any new skills or confidence.

Not to say it didn't still feel pretty great.

Lash and Speed's moms were hugging each other and crying across the room – everyone had been slightly surprised that Speed, Lash, and Penny had all managed to graduate only a few years late. As heroes.

"Hey Will." Warren was suddenly next to him, shaking his hand, somehow having managed to avoid the paparazzi. "Congratulations. You're finally actually authorized to save the world."

"Thanks man." Will said grinning.

"Warren!" His mom crowed. "There you are! Smile! Smile Will!"

Will obligingly turned his charm onto the camera. He was finally making his way into the scrapbooks.

* * *

The party was actually kind of great. Will'd been skeptical of his parents throwing a graduation party – I mean, come on, who wanted to go to a party where someone's dad'd be shoving old yearbooks and scrapbooks in your face? And there were the stack of invitations labeled 'Celebrate the Stronghold Three!' that were languishing in the recycling.

But other than that, way better than the disaster he'd been envisioning. Everyone had showed up. Even Penny – or one of her, anyway – was standing over by the drinks, chatting with her new partner.

Will still couldn't quite believe it. These were his classmates, the people he'd eaten lunch in the cafeteria with, who'd he'd struggled through history with. He was used to seeing them at lockers, bent over books and backpacks, filling up school buses. But they weren't just his classmates anymore. Now they were the world's new supers. Heroes.

Part of him was terrified. How on earth were Larry and Carla, who couldn't even beat their neighbors – their regular, completely human neighbors – in foosball be able to save the city the next time a giant moth from Neptune attacked?

But then there was another part that was just psyched he had survived high school. He was done – finally – and would never have to go back. Somehow he'd managed to get through it. He'd worry about saving the world tomorrow, right now he just wanted to celebrate.

"Hey." Warren said, leaning his forehead against hers.

"Hey." She replied, meeting his eyes and smiling up at him. "Great party. The Commander told me keeping the beer cold was almost the best power he could think of."

"Almost?"

"Yeah," Abby sighed with a smile, leaning back against the table. Warren eased back next to her, surveying the lawn spilling over with ambling supers. "Only almost. Maybe one day I'll get up to a definitely."

"Listen," Warren said, mentally preparing himself to launch into it. "I, uh, I just wanted to let you know. Since everyone's graduating and getting their partners and everything. I won't be offended or upset or anything if you want to change partners."

"What?"

"You're talented and powerful, and with a different partner you could be getting the assignments that would be taking you places and getting you the recognition you deserve. I don't want to be holding you back, I just want you to be happy."

"Do you want to change partners?"

"That doesn't matter, it's your decision."

"No, it's the only thing that matters. Are you trying to get me to split us up so you won't have to?"

"No, of course not."

"Warren, I can't believe you'd even suggest that! Why on earth would you think I'd want to change partners? You're holding us back," she scoffed. "Please, you're one of the most powerful supers in the world!"

"Don't play dumb Abby, you know what I'm talking about. I'm the reason we aren't getting on prime time, Battle's son doesn't get the choice assignments. I'm just saying, you don't have to stick with that if you don't want to – I don't want to ruin your career just because you're dating me."

"And do you honestly think that's what I want most in my partner – someone who will further my career?"

"Your partner is your career Abby."

"But this isn't an office job. I need to be able to trust my partner, know they'll watch my back.

"And I don't trust anyone more than you. We don't just get along well, we work together well – you know my moves, I know yours. I cover for your weaknesses, and I know you're looking out for mine. You think I'm gonna give that up to go work with Jetray?"

Warren smiled as he shrugged, and leaned down to quickly kiss her on the cheek. "I have to admit, I was kind of hoping you'd turn that down."

"Yeah, well, if it'd be hard to find a replacement for you, it'd be damn near impossible to find a replacement for me."

"It's crazy, isn't it?" Layla said. "One day we're starting elementary school together. And today we're done."

"I know," Will said, nodding. "I feel like I might've missed some important steps along the way."

"You?" Layla asked, laughing and raising an eyebrow. "Well, if you did, they must not've been that important."

"I sure hope not." Will said, trying to brush it off with a smile.

"You got the most important part right anyway," She said.

What, actually graduating? Save the citizen? That A in geometry? Saving the world – which time, this year, freshmen year, junior year?

"This party." She raised her cup with a smile.

"Oh!" Will grinned too, bumping the edge of his cup against hers. "Yeah. Of all the high school parties, I think this is the only one I actually wanted to have, and go to."

"Is it bad if I'm surprised it's going so well?"

"Not at all," Will shook his head vehemently. "I was expecting disaster way before now. I'm just glad our parents haven't broken into tears yet."

"Oh, it's coming." Layla warned. "They're already going into empty nest mode for me. And they aren't taking it well."

"Oh yeah, my parents argued hard core for the commuting from home."

"We could've carpooled." Layla grinned. "It'd be like regressing to first grade all over again."

"Life is all just a circle. Graduation has just led us back to the beginning."

"It still doesn't really feel real." Layla commented. "I mean, you get what I'm saying, right? This doesn't feel any different. Maybe I'm still in shock." She laughed.

"Yeah, guess I'm still coming to terms with it too." Will agreed.

"It's kind of amazing though, isn't it?" Layla turned her smile to him. "We've save the world so many times already it feels like, been through so much. And now we're finally heroes. For real now. We've made it."

"I dunno," Will said, and Layla turned to look at him. "I mean, it is great. But. It also kind of feels like an ending."

"Well, it is an ending." Layla said, tilting her head. "The end of high school. But it's also the beginning of us being heroes."

"I know," Will said. "I guess what I'm afraid of is it also being the end of all this." He gestured around him. "Of us, all hanging out together. I mean, I'll get more than enough of Zach, obviously, but Warren's already off in the real world, and now you and Magenta will be off fighting crime who knows where, and Ethan's going into research somewhere huge and prestigious," Will shrugged. "I'm just going to miss our study groups, that's all."

Layla smiled. "I will too. They were the best part of high school."

Will could feel his throat tightening. This was it. He knew this was it, this was his opportunity rolling out the red carpet for him. He'd made an idiot of himself practicing in front of the mirror, but now seconds before he was still no closer to knowing what was the right thing to say. He plunged forward anyway.

"I miss you."

Layla smiled and laughed a little. "I'm not going anywhere, Will. We'll be going to the same college – well, as covers anyway. And we aren't going to lose touch."

"Not," Will ran a hand up and over the back of his head. "Not like that. I miss – I miss being with you. You know. I miss us."

The light smile faded off her face as understanding dawned. "Oh." She said, fingers tapping against the edge of her cup. "Okay. Look, I –"

"Wait, just," Will interrupted, desperate to be able to have his say before being shot down. "I know we broke up because I was being an asshole. It was all might fault, and I'm sorry. I've been sorry every day since it happened.

"But we had something, didn't we, when we were together? It just worked. It was perfect, and I was happier than I can ever remember being. You know me better than anyone. I feel more like myself when I'm with you, and I can't imagine ever being without you."

"Will," Layla's eyes closed briefly. "I've missed you like crazy. You're my best friend – you've always been my best friend – and after we broke up, and things just weren't the same, it was awful. You're right, when we first started dating, I thought I couldn't possibly feel any happier. But, as much as I wish things hadn't changed between us, they did. I want to go back."

"Well, if you feel that way too, then what's stopping us?" Will asked, cautiously allowing a note of hope to creep into his voice.

Layla bit her lip hesitantly. "I moved on from high school Will a while ago." She admitted. "And I think you have too. You've really become an amazing hero, Will. But that's the thing, we're heroes now. And everybody knows about you and is going to be watching you, expecting great things from you – and I'm sure you're going to deliver.

"But I can't just be The Captain's girlfriend, his sidekick. I'm a hero too, and I need to have that separate from you. I know you've grown up a lot, I'm sure you would never do that intentionally. But I can't move on from high school just to go back into your shadow."

"We aren't going to be partners," Will started slowly. "Which obviously was a good choice. Maybe you're right, and we would have problems again. But I don't want to just assume we'd fail. And we can take things slow. One day at a time. Just start off with one date. This isn't The Captain asking The Gardener out, just Will asking Layla. Because both The Captain and Will think Layla's pretty great."

Layla reached out and took his hand. "Yeah." She said smiling. "I don't know about The Captain and The Gardener yet, but Will and Layla make a pretty great team."

"So," Will drew out the word, starting to mirror her smile. "Saturday night?"

Layla laughed. "I'm free."

"Then it's a date."

He kissed her quickly, and it was sunshine and roses and daisies, and she laughed some more and Will had to look around to reassure himself that he hadn't actually started flying and his feet were still planted firmly on the ground.

Layla placed a hand on either side of his face, sobering a little. "I can't make any promises. We didn't work out the first time we tried this, and I have no idea if we'll do any better a second time around" She glanced down at their hands, and holding his tighter looked back up at him. "But I want to try."

Will grinned. "I think we have a pretty good shot."

Layla smiled back. "I think so too."

* * *

"Does it feel weird to anyone else to be hanging out without textbooks?" Magenta asked, grabbing another handful of chips.

"That's what it is!" Will snapped his fingers. "We're hardly ever all sitting around without some huge test or paper hanging over our heads!"

"I. Am never." Zach groaned, lifting his head up slightly from Magenta's lap. "Going to write another paper. Ever again."

"Hate to break this to you Zach, but that happens in college too." Ethan reminded him.

"It's a cover!" Zach protested. "I don't actually have to do any work. Do I?"

"You probably shouldn't blow it off entirely." Layla cautioned with a grin.

"Poor Ethan's the only one still stuck in school." Magenta grinned. "Hey Ethan, you've got any cool new gadgets for us?"

"Magenta, I told you, I don't even work in that department. At all."

"New toys?" Zach cracked an eye open.

"New toys, new toys, new toys, new toys." Will slowly started chanting, and Zach eagerly joined in, as did Magenta, banging their hands on the table.

Layla rolled her eyes at Warren, who was having trouble concealing his grin.

Ethan laughed and shook his head. "The next office over they're working on cockroach zappers – trust me, you guys'll be the first to know when they go into production."

Magenta wrinkled her noes and stopped chanting. "Could come in handy, I guess." She shrugged.

"Cockroach zappers?" Zach asked.

"Well that's not the final name."

"Do they like, turn the people you zap them with into cockroaches, or do they zap cockroaches into oblivion? Either way I want one."

"Maybe for your birthday."

Will's phone started blaring. As he searched idly for the off switch, everyone else's phones started emitting sirens too. The first thought that flickered through his head was that it was one of those flood warnings, but the next instant his brain put the pieces together. It wasn't just a call – it was a super call.

He glanced at the screen – downtown, giant robots, slime guns? Was that a typo? Hopefully, he'd find out.

"Slime guns, man." Zach said, already on his feet. "That could be tricky."

The door flew open revealing Abby, here eyes instantly meeting Warren's. "Downtown." She said.

Warren gave a nod, grabbing his coat. "Now." He replied.

"Meet you there." Layla said.

She bent over Will and kissed him quickly on the lips.

"Be safe." He said, squeezing her arm as he stared up at her.

She nodded. "You too."

Then she was gone, breezing out the door with Magenta.

Ethan was already pulling out his computer, schematics quickly flooding the screen. Will had no idea what they meant, but Ethan was already muttering into his phone and typing rapidly. Whatever it was, Will knew Ethan would handle it – just like he had to handle whatever was on his end.

"You ready for this?" Will asked Zach, rolling out his shoulders as they exited.

"Born ready, man." Zach replied, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Hey, you wanna get Chinese after this? Magenta says there's this Thai place downtown, but we get Thai all the time, and Chinese is still Asian –"

"Sounds awesome." Will cut him off. "I'm always starving after a mission."

"Same dude." Zach said, leaping onto Will's back.

Will braced himself, then leapt off the doorstep into the clouds.


End file.
